Rebecca Frances Burns

Rebecca is a third culture kid, born in the UK and raised in Oregon. She discovered her career in global education first studying abroad in France during her Junior year. After high school she pursued a Gap Year in Tanzania teaching reproductive health, an experience that would lead her into a managing position with the Mwagusi Safari Camp in Ruaha National Park by the age of 18. She went on to study Arabic in Morocco and Black Studies in Portland before designing a BA in Globalization and Education at NYU’s Gallitan School of Individualized Studies. Rebecca earned an MA in Adolescent Psychology and is currently a PhD Candidate in Sustainability Education at Prescott College in Arizona.

Working with Where There Be Dragons, Rebecca has led courses in Jordan, China, Rwanda and Senegal and has spoken with students and educators at schools across the country. She is today a Gap Year Consultant and Coach for teen flourishing in a changing world and her career has crisscrossed the fields of sustainable tourism, education, and human rights in the nonprofit world working with the IRC, Hirondelle International and globally with the Ace Hotel Group. She is a portrait photographer, carrying her Hasselblad and a few extra rolls of film on every new adventure, and has lived in numerous large cities and remote dwellings across the world. She currently resides in Taos, New Mexico, ancestral home of the Tewa “Red Willow” People, with her husband and two young daughters. She speaks French, Swahili, and works to stay fluent in the 100 languages of children and youth.