Our Staff
Mike Fischesser
Founder
Born in Alabama in 1952, Mike convinced his parents at age four to move to North Carolina so he could be closer to the mountains. Apparently, he knew what he wanted from an early age.
Mike’s lifelong passion for adventure began in Scouting, where he became an Eagle Scout, worked five summers on the staff at Raven Knob Scout Reservation, and discovered wilderness canoeing on a 1968 expedition to the Boundary Waters.
After earning a degree in Outdoor Recreation from East Carolina University, Mike spent 20 years with the North Carolina Outward Bound School and Outward Bound USA. His work took him far beyond guiding expeditions, including the development of ropes courses, basecamps and leadership programs, as well as national safety initiatives for Outward Bound programs.
Eventually, the pull of the North Carolina mountains brought him home. Mike founded Alpine Towers and, after a decade, sold the company to devote himself to something he believed could have an even greater impact: The American Adventure Service Corps (TAASC).
For more than 30 years, TAASC has been Mike’s passion and his laboratory for a simple belief: young people become capable leaders when they are given meaningful challenges, real responsibility, and the opportunity to discover what they can do.
Mike’s own adventures have taken him throughout North and Central America, including nearly 50 expeditions to the Yukon and Northwest Territories. He has explored caves, paddled remote rivers, climbed mountains, and pioneered more than 70 first ascents. He is a Life Member of the National Speleological Society and American Alpine Club and received the Kurt Hahn Award in 2015.
Among his many contributions to the outdoor community, Mike founded the Association for Challenge Course Technology, created the Southern Appalachian Paddlesports Museum and Carolina Climbing Museum, and authored works documenting significant explorations in the Southeast.
But perhaps his most enduring expedition is TAASC itself - an ongoing experiment in what young people are capable of when we give them the opportunity to find out.
Megan Anderson
Program Director
Megan’s connection to the outdoors started with growing up in Hawaii, where a relationship with the land is simply part of everyday life. Over time, that foundation grew into a 20+ year career in the adventure travel industry. Today, it continues to shape how she raises her kids and the kind of experiences she hopes to create for others.
A certified Wilderness First Responder since 2004, and with a degree in Natural Resources Recreation Management and a minor in Tourism, Megan began her career as a wilderness guide, leading trips for organizations like REI, National Geographic, and MT Sobek across the western National Parks, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, Australia, and Fiji. The Grand Canyon became her home base, where she has led over 100 trips to the bottom, including some of her most meaningful rim-to-rims with the Wounded Warrior Project.
Beyond the field, Megan spent years on the operations and leadership side of adventure travel. In corporate roles with REI Adventures and other outfitters, she designed award-winning domestic group travel itineraries, led initiatives to improve product delivery, and supported teams responsible for creating safe, seamless, and meaningful trips at scale. She helped pioneer REI’s first kid-friendly backpacking itineraries and pushed to expand access so younger kids could experience the wilderness alongside their families.
Throughout her career, Megan has seen firsthand what time in the outdoors can unlock in young people. She has extensive experience working with at-risk and special needs youth, leading multi-day outdoor programs designed to challenge, support, and bring out the best in each individual. She spent many seasons in summer camps teaching rock climbing, bouldering, backpacking, ropes courses, and naturalist skills, and she even co-owned an outdoor survival and primitive skills school, Lost & Found Adventures, with her husband and fellow TAASC director, Chris.
In 2024, Megan and her family moved from Arizona to Morganton to be closer to the kind of everyday wild spaces they want their kids to grow up in—mountains, rivers, lakes, and room to roam. She’s the mom of a TAASC member (Harper, 10) and twin 5-year-old boys, and spends plenty of time outside adventuring alongside them.
At the heart of it all is a simple belief: kids are capable of far more than we give them credit for. Given the space to explore, take risks, and figure things out for themselves, they rise to meet the moment. Nature provides the perfect proving ground for that kind of growth, helping kids build independence, resilience, and a deep sense of connection they’ll carry into adulthood—with a little grit, a lot of love, and a whole lot of dirt under their nails.
Chris Anderson
Program Director
Involved father, veteran outdoor guide, and Wilderness EMT, Chris has spent more than two decades helping people find growth and connection through the outdoors. His professional career has focused on leading outdoor programs, developing people, managing risk, and creating the systems and culture that allow organizations to thrive. Highlights of his career include lead instructor and camp nurse for Wolf Camp, a premier outdoor survival and primitive skills camp for kids, Lead Guide for Arizona Outback Adventures, leading outdoor adventure trips across nearly all western national parks, and National Risk Manager for REI Experiences, developing and maintaining a national risk and safety program for ourdoor adventure programmming. As a Program Director of Morganton TAASC, Chris is especially passionate about helping young people discover their capabilities through challenging outdoor experiences. He believes that the lessons learned around a campfire, on a trail, or during a difficult expedition can become the foundation for confident, resilient, and engaged community leaders.