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 ]

Paul was born and raised in NY and joined the team in 2016. He brings many years of marketing and entrepreneurial experience to the club, having previously run two businesses of his own, a professional recording studio and teaching practice. He has worked in the marketing department for NJ Transit and a variety of tech startups in NYC. He is an avid lover of all things tech, whether it is the latest gadget or new marketing software. He holds an B.A in Music from SUNY Purchase and an MBA in Marketing from CUNY Baruch.

Paul has been climbing for over four years and became hooked as soon as he set foot in TRC. He is a lover of the outdoors, enjoys traveling, cooking, playing his guitar and drums, and investing in the stock market. One of his life long goals is to hike the Appalachian Trail in its entirety, ME to GA, all 2200 miles of it. He says Yosemite National Park is his favorite place on planet earth (check out the valley in his pic). When he’s not at the club, you can find him exercising, reading, teaching music lessons, and taking care of his seven year old american bombay cat, Lucy. [ X ]

Ashlee started climbing and working at TRC in 2017. With a dancing background, she was able to pick up slacklining quickly and learn how to walk, sit and lay comfortably on the slackline within a few weeks. Ashlee is very excited to be a new Team Rock coach and can’t wait to join them at Nationals this year. “The team inspires me to push past my limits and I can’t wait to help them do the same”. Ashlee loves balancing, bouldering, and bacon-burgers! [ X ]

Carmela has been climbing since 2017 & is itching to get outside. She is an aspiring adolescent social studies educator & world traveler. A lifelong learner & go-getter, Carmela has worked as a college radio DJ in New York & Colorado, an education intern & docent at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, and most recently as a records coordinator with Major League Baseball in NYC. Carmela spent some time backpacking throughout the Rocky Mountain Range, especially in Colorado. She once went on an impromptu road trip around the West Coast for three weeks in a totally packed Nissan Altima. Now she seeks adventure on the East Coast. Ask Carmela about her next concert, trail run, or brunch spot next time you see her on desk! [ X ]

Chris is a third year economics student at purchase college and is also an avid pool shark, music nerd and full time goon, but for the past year his greatest love has been climbing. Chris started working at The Rock Club in December 2016 and started climbing a few months after that. Since starting his journey at TRC, Chris has become a facilitator and head instructor of TRC’s amazing junior programs and even started lead climbing. Chris’ favorite things about climbing are balancey stem climbs, unnecessary dynos and calling himself a boulderer (yes, that is a word). When he’s not climbing Chris can be found making music, writing lesson plans for his Junior Programs classes or sleeping on the roof of his car [ X ]

A New Rochelle native, Daniel developed an early love of the outdoors going on hikes with his Dad. Loving to scramble up rocks and boulders, he discovered climbing at a young age, and as a teen even enjoyed a short stint climbing at The Rock Club. After a hiatus from the sport, Daniel rediscovered his passion for climbing when he started working at The Rock Club in 2015. Working at The Rock Club has helped bring both climbing and the outdoors back into his life in a big way. “I love how passionate and welcoming the community is at The Rock Club. It has absolutely helped me rediscover things that I loved.” Over the years, Daniel has worked as a Belayer, Facilitator, Junior Program instructor, and head instructor. Along the way he developed a passion for teaching kids. He graduated with BS in psychology in the fall of 2018 and in late spring of became the Rock Club’s Director of Junior Programs. Now, he hopes to help spread his passion for climbing and the outdoors he rediscovered through The Rock Club. [ X ]

You will most likely find Lee being tossed in the air by her Acro partner or holding hard onto some crimps. Lee was born and raised in Long Island and fled when she found her new home at The Rock Club in 2016. She began her TRC journey as a belayer and quickly made her way to working on the Front Desk. If it’s your first time at TRC, don’t worry that’s not a child at the desk.. that’s just Lee. Towering at a height of 4’11” , she can just see over the desk! This is her second year of having the honor to be a coach for Team Rock. One of our newbie setters, her initials are LK. Lee is our “part time Vegan” and full time movement junkie! You can find Lee and ask her mostly anything about TRC and shell be glad to help you. [ 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 ]

Saraphina Redalieu is tall dark and handsome, and has a talent for talking like an old man from the 1950’s. She recently won the award for clumsiest person alive, almost immediately after pulling a muscle in her shoulder while putting on a pair of pants. Her aspirations include petting a manatee, and walking in a straight line. Saraphina began working on desk at TRC but began to pursue her passion of climbing photography, which is featured on the TRC instagram and facebook. She has been routesetting ince September 2017, and is slowly getting over her fear of ladders. She loves to set because the sound of the drill drowns out her constant existential dread. Check out her website for more climbing content [ X ]