Our Staff

Executive Director, Lawson Wijesooriya came to Richmond, VA in 2004 with a heart for the inner city. She lives in an under-resourced area of the East End with her husband, her two sons, and fellow workers in community development. Lawson graduated from the University of Virginia as a Phi Beta Kappa Jefferson Scholar, and enjoyed her honors interdisciplinary study of Christian community development in the Political and Social Thought Program. From there, she traveled in the developing world for 6 months before returning to the U.S. to begin her teaching and coaching career. She taught at-risk urban middle school children for three years before leaving her post to begin as Program Director of the Blue Sky Fund. Lawson has extensive experience in outdoor trip leading and ropes course instructing. Lawson continues to enjoy the opportunity to follow her dreams of introducing the outdoor adventure world to urban youth by becoming as the Executive Director of BSF.  Assistant Program Director, Callie Van Horn grew up in Chesterfield County, outside of Richmond, Va. After graduating from Longwood University in December 2003 with a degree in Liberal Studies: Elementary Education but unsure of what to do, she soon found herself working in Alabama at Natures Classroom, an amazing outdoor education facility, and loving every moment of it. Though she returned to Virginia after that first spring season, she has since pursued positions predominantly in outdoor education with a one year break teaching 5th grade at the Elijah House Academy while completing her Masters Degree in Education: Teaching and Learning. Due primarily to her experience at EHA, Callie found herself with a great desire to reach out and work consistently with at-risk and otherwise underprivileged students and is excited to be incorporating that with her love for the outdoors. After getting married in August 2009, Callie and her husband moved to Church Hill in hopes of further establishing and growing relationships in the community.