Our Team

Originally from the Big Sky State, Meghan McDonald found her way to the Big Apple for school and we’ve been able to keep her here ever since! She brings over 20 years of experience in the climbing industry to the TRC family (yeah, she’s that old!). While she stepped away from the GM role at TRC after opening the doors and more than a decade of service, her heart is here to stay and she’s always available to welcome you to our community, show you the ropes, and to guide the TRC staff as they grow with the goal of raising the bar and being better every day.

Her motto is do what you love – love what you do and you’ll find her doing just that as Team Rock’s Head Coach where she’s building world-class climbers and even better people. Team Rock recently ranked 2nd in the Nation and has seen athletes compete at the World Championships (exciting is an understatement!). This is East Coast climbers wrestling plastic with the best in the country! How does she stay motivated day in day out, year after year? “It’s about cultivating a love of climbing, a passionate desire to learn, a culture of try hard effort, and above all having fun and enjoying doing it. Who needs to be motivated when you have that?! I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to build a community and a family of climbers at TRC. Working with these athletes and our coaching team fills me up.”

When she’s not coaching, she’s still coaching or at least thinking about coaching. Since 2012, Meghan has coached the Youth US National Climbing Team where she’s taken Team USA to points all over the world. We’re talking China, Austria, Italy … Stateside, Meghan also serves as the Chair of the USA Climbing Coaching Committee where she’s dedicated to helping coaches gain experience and use valuable tools to be better coaches and to hopefully put the US in a position to see gold at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Rando facts – Meghan’s been climbing since 14, was a vegetarian for 15 years, started Crux: www.climbcrux.org (nyc’s LGBT climbing group), played soccer for Fordham University (was a goalie – now you know she’s crazy!), lived #vanlife circa 2006 before it was cool (Send the States was written up in Urban Climber Magazine back in the day), and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch her on the wall – she’ll likely be off-the-couch in jeans making some guttural tryhard noises as she puts down a crazy techy proj. Meghan is a wee bit competitive, a terrible hoola hooper, and still can’t do a handstand. And the girl she’s adventuring with isn’t her sister! She’s her partner in crime and soon-to-be wife Liz. [ X ]

Jordan Pacheco was born and raised here in our very own New Rochelle. Jordan has been working for TRC since 2008 and caught the climbing bug hard. Since falling in love with climbing, he has only three things on his mind; climbing, soccer, and animals (in no particular order). Jordan has the honor of being one of the coaches for our award-winning rock climbing team: Team Rock. Unable to name just one, his favorite climbing moments are his yearly climbing/camping trips at The Red River Gorge with Team Rock. These trips are guaranteed to be filled with corniest of puns and the promise of amazing pizza at Miguel’s. A cat lover like no other, he has two cats. One is from the local shelter, and the other was saved off the streets during one of the most brutal snow storms in 2014. Whenever Jordan isn’t climbing, he can be found on a soccer pitch somewhere or helping at a local shelter. A graduate and former soccer player of Westchester Community College, Jordan is currently working towards a degree in Veterinary Technology. [ X ]

A New Rochelle veteran, Xavier has 8 years of climbing and high rope course experience. He holds two National camp school certifications; one for climbing and one for C.O.P.E (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience.) through the BSA. He is also an Eagle Scout.

His favorite climbing moment was when he took his first whipper down in Kentucky RRG. A “whipper” is defined as an especially long or hard fall. He went at least 20 ft before he stopped. The moment his hand slipped off the wall, he felt free. It was just him and nothing else, he just was.

If he could choose a super power, he would be “Multiple Man.” This hero has the ability to make as many copies of himself as he wanted, and then be able to gain the copies’ experiences when they are reabsorbed back to his original form. He is constantly searching for truth and knowledge. Xavier’s favorite non-climbing activity is definitely singing. He loves music in general and he’s always singing, always. [ X ]

A lifetime resident of New Rochelle, Belissa been climbing for 4 years. She is one of the head instructors for junior programs here at TRC. She loves climbing at the Gunks and really enjoys everything about the outdoors.

On her own time at TRC, she enjoys doing flips and stretches in the on the springy blue mats. Pull ups are not her favorite but are necessary for climbing, and she is working on a new record. Out of anything in life, food is a favorite and a must. Good food brings good energy into climbing! Whether on the wall or on the floor, she likes to annoy everyone with her singing. [ X ]

There are plenty of words you can use to describe Conor (like world traveler, writer, or nerd) but his favorite way to describe himself is a climber. Addicted to the sport, Conor started climbing right here at TRC in the summer of 2016 when he signed up for the Climbing 101 class. Since then, Conor has ventured outdoors to try climbing on real rock and visited climbing gyms all over the world (even working in one in Ireland for a few months).

Of course, as much as he likes climbing, he does have a life outside of TRC (we think). At home, Conor loves hanging out with friends, writing fantasy novels, and playing video games. Outside, you can either find him hiking a mountain somewhere or in the city with some friends solving puzzles in an escape room. He’s also known to be looking for his next adventure, whether it be camping somewhere in New York or flying to another country. But of course, as much as he loves to be out he’s always happy to come home to his friends, family, and TRC. [ X ]

Jenny has been a TRC employee and a member of the Team Rock family since 2011, and she’s still loving it! Since starting as a belayer, she’s enjoyed the role of camp counselor, junior program instructor, facilitator, and head instructor; these days, you’re more likely to find her coaching Team Rock, or sitting on the end of a rope with a few buckets of holds hanging off her harness, sweating and making a racket with her well-loved power drill. Her favorite place to climb is the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, where Team Rock journeys every year to get unreasonably pumped out on perfect sandstone and refine their pancake-making techniques. Ask her to show you pictures of her pup, Bernie, and give her climbs a try! [ X ]

Full time Graphic Design student, part time Head Instructor of Junior Programs, full time goofball and laughter machine Marissa can be found somewhere in the gym correcting footwork, cheering too loudly, or sneaking in a sneaker send with the kids. Marissa enjoys participating in TRC’s own Adult Climbing League, conquering her fear of heights and falling on lead, eating burritos, and hiking in nature. Outside the gym, you can’t find Marissa because she’s probably lost in Manhattan on her bicycle, in a crowd at a concert, or drove her beaten up Subaru somewhere into a galaxy far, far away…. [ X ]

Part time Head instructor, Part-time DJ, full-time smiler! Jacob was our youngest employee to become a head instructor for camp and Junior Programs. Jacob has been climbing since 2015. A lover of the outdoors and exploring Jacob immediately fell in love with climbing when he came to a Teen Night at TRC back in 2015. When he is not competing in our Adult Climbing League, you can find him somewhere between two trees on his slack line or bothering Ashley with his countless ideas. Jacob’s high energy & bubbly personality will make sure to leave you with a smile on your face! [ X ]