When you include us,
you include us all.
CO-DIRECTORS
Meet Zach Friedley
Zachary Friedley is a professional trail runner whose life mission is to make trails more accessible to people with disabilities.
As a sponsored athlete, Zachary is one of a handful above-knee “trailbladers” in the world racing on a professional level, a circumstance he aims to change through his advocacy work. Using his platform as a well-known trail athlete, Zachary continues to collaborate closely with major brands and race organizers to develop new adaptive athlete divisions and policies to welcome disabled runners to major trail racing events around the world.
As an athlete, Zachary races in high profile trail events throughout the year including UTMB World Series races in New Zealand, France, and Spain, as well as Serre Zinal in Switzerland, the mammoth trailfest. and Broken Arrow races in California, and road marathons including the New York City Marathon. In 2020, Zach founded Mendocino Movement Project, the parent nonprofit organization of Born to Adapt, which invites adaptive runners of all abilities to get out on the trails. Zachary lives in beautiful Northern California where he lives with his wife, Meagan, and their tiny dog, Cleo.
Meet Matt Bryson
Matthew Bryson is the Peer Support and Event Coordinator at Peke Waihanga Artificial Limb Service and the Director of BTA New Zealand.
As the National Peer Support Leader for Peke Waihanga, Matthew oversees a team of 120+ volunteers, who help support amputees throughout New Zealand as they heal, recover, and transition through their experiences. Matthew’s passion for his work is driven by his own personal experience of disability and the accident that profoundly changed the course of his life in his early thirties.
Matthew is based in Edgecumbe, New Zealand where he teaches both kagura (the Japanese flute) and taiko drumming to high school students throughout the country. He is fluent in Japanese and an avid and adventurous world traveler.
To learn about how he entered the amputee world and to hear about his journey, Attitude made a documentary, which can be viewed here.
Meet Dani Aravich
Danielle “Dani” Aravich is a two-time Summer and Winter Paralympian and a nationally recognized disability access strategist.
Dani’s life changed profoundly in 2018 when she learned about the Paralympics for the first time. Dani caught the eye of the U.S. Paralympic Nordic Ski coach and was asked to attend a development camp for US Para Nordic Skiing in late 2019. Dani made her debut at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 in the women’s T47 400m. Just over six months later, she would represent Team USA at the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 in biathlon and cross-country skiing.
As a disability rights activist and communications specialist, Dani uses her professional platform to elevate and equalize content coverage and public discourse around disabled athletes and para sports. She is the co-founder of Culxtured, a media company whose mission is to change the narrative around para athletes through creative storytelling and visibility.
ADVISORS
Meet Eric Orton
For Born to Adapt, Eric co-hosts workshops and training camps, helping athletes of all abilities better understand the mechanics of their bodies.
Eric has spent a lifetime exploring human potential and the limitless possibilities of the body and mind. He is known for his study of ancestral cultures (like Mexico’s legendary Rarámuri ultrarunners), evolutionary biomechanics, and human performance. He operates Run Academy, and is a trusted coach and consultant for everyday runners and elites athletes. First catapulted onto the global running stage through Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run, which began as an essay featuring Orton’s running methodology, Eric is best known for “Free Seven,” a unique approach to running that is at the heart of his latest best selling book, Born to Run 2: The Ultimate Training Guide. He teaches strategies for dreaming beyond fear and running beyond limits, and he is the former Director of Fitness at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Meet David Kilgore
David is a professional runner and renowned race director who found his stride in the world of ultra marathons in his twenties.
Known for his unique “Florida Grown” vibe, David describes himself as a “globally infused, endurance connoisseur, and the world's okayest marketer.” As a trail athlete, David has competed in some of the wildest races on earth including the Great World Marathon Challenge, a race event that challenges runners to seven marathons, on seven continents, in seven days. He won the competition in 2023 and 2024. As the former Global Head of Outdoors at On, David has been a champion of Born to Adapt and Zach’s efforts to bring awareness, equity, and opportunity to the sport of trail running since they first met and "instantly clicked” in 2022. When he’s not running marathons in wild, far off places, you can find David in his hometown of Miami, Florida organizing group runs, planning his next adventure, and supporting B2A and its mission to get all people moving.
Board of Directors
In 2025, Born to Adapt brought on 5 new board of directors. We are excited to build upon the work that our founding Board of Directors began, and we thank them for their service, mentorship, and stewardship: Paul Katzeff, Sam Edwards, and Don Bainbridge.
Meagan Demitz
Board President, Meagan is a speech coach and organizational strategy specialist with more than 23 years of experience in the nonprofit sector.
Jason Malvar
Board Member, Jason is an engineering leader, with a passion for solving problems in the aerospace, defense and tech industry.
Ben Clark
Board Member, Ben is a Certified Prosthetist-Orthotist at Eastside Orthotics and Prosthetics, helping folks of all ages get the prosthetics they need.
Bretty Rawson
Board Member, Bretty is a creative director, narrative strategist, and dachshund dad. They run trails and Slow Blink.
Daniel Seykora
Board Member, Dani is a multi-regional sales leader at a sportswear company and a student of depth psychology and somatic bodywork, specializing in trauma therapy.
Changed lives change lives.
We know, first-hand, the difference that one step makes. And we know how hard it can feel when you don’t know where to take that next step, literally or figuratively. But as we have found, time and again, when that next step is in community, there is no wrong direction. And that is what Born to Adapt will always do: foster connection through community. We know that we can change our stories, and we know that our stories can change the world. And so below, get to know three of the early stories that shaped who Born to Adapt would become today.
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“Born to Adapt has provided our son Shaun with a true sense of community and belonging. Shaun feels supported by his peers and that drives his passion to push beyond his physical limitations. His enthusiasm inspires us and Born to Adapt has allowed him to inspire others and promote inclusion.”
— Frank & Jennifer Wahl, Shaun’s parents
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Jahir’s collaboration with Born to Adapt started with a mountain climb in the Ecuadorian Andes where he and Zach met in 2022. Like Zach, Jahir was born with a congenital limb difference and has used a prosthetic since childhood. While they don’t speak the same language, Zach and Jahir recognized in one another the same passion and drive they both have for running through trails and scaling peaks. They have been chasing one another up and down mountains ever since.
With the support of Born to Adapt, Jahir has since competed in multiple UTMB competitions, including UTMB Quito in his home country, which qualified him for the 2025 UTMB OCC race in Chamonix, France. Jahir has traveled to the United States in order to access improved prosthetics to support his training, as well as Europe to train alongside Zach and other para athletes preparing for major competitions. He is currently attending university in Ecuador and continues to train on both trails and on the track. Jahir’s dream is to use his experience in international trail running to launch his running career and to someday represent his country in the Paralympics and other world competitions.
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“I obtained my brain injury back in 2009. I was riding my bike and I got hit by a car. I was put in a coma for 3 weeks. Born to adapt felt really special because it gave me a chance to be with others with similar life experiences. At born to adapt, I was able to be myself without judgment from others. I appreciated the feeling of "Do what you can", there was no expectation of having to accomplish set standards put up. Like you have to do this or that. I was able to be free. Born to adapt is important because it provides opportunities for disabled individuals to show what they are capable of. So many people look down on disabled people and they count us out. Born to adapt gave me the confidence to be comfortable in my own skin.”
— Victor Hugo Hernandez Jr.
Becoming disabled can happen to anyone, which is why