Our Crew

The Urban Edge team comprises wilderness therapy, aftercare, and clinical professionals who share the belief that mentorship is a key to young adult success.

How We Got Started

Urban Edge was founded, after seeing a need for a different kind of program – one offering a “semblance of real life.” For the right type of client, a highly individualized program that allows someone to find success on their own terms, helps maintain the changes and progress made, even after moving onward.

Why Denver?

A city offers a balance between professional and personal growth, where clients have the opportunities to thrive both personally and professionally. Not only does Denver offer nature (and all its glory), but it’s a hub filled with progressive companies, the nation’s top schools and one of the best places in the US for young people to succeed.

Co-Founder & Co-Director

Andrew Moskovitz

Andrew’s behavioral health interest started in the field. As a client. Since his experience in wilderness, Andrew has travelled the world, worked in the wilderness therapy field, assisted in psychological research at CU, worked for Children’s Hospital of Colorado in their acute inpatient unit, worked in admissions for a group of adolescent therapeutic programs and finally, co-founded a young adult program in Northern Idaho before returning to Denver to open Urban Edge.

Andrew believes in creating a program where clients have room to fail without feeling like they’ve lost themselves. That “ownership” understanding infiltrates the Urban Edge model.

“Every person is capable of change. Part of real change is self-discovery. When detrimental issues and life challenges are addressed, personal characteristics are uncovered, revealing an aware, healthy, solution oriented person.”

Books: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, East of Eden, The View from The Center of The Universe, Waking Up, Outlander, Catcher in the Rye, Power of Myth, Zen Mind Beginners Mind, Leaves of Grass, A Walk in the Woods

Music: Lettuce, Tycho, Chopin, Led Zeppelin, Cherub, Beach House, The Drums, Paul Simon, STS9, Sam Bush, Schubert, Railroad Earth, Dumpsta Funk, Two Fresh, Karl Denson, Soulive, Al Green, Emancipator, Capital Cities

Hobbies: Spending time with my wife and our pup, Traveling, Climbing, Hiking, Fly fishing, Seeing live music, Skiing, Snowboarding, Cooking

Quote: “Your degree is not a proxy for your ability to do any job. The world only cares about — and pays off on — what you can do with what you know (and it doesn’t care how you learned it).” – Thomas L. Friedman

Co-Founder & Co-Director

Clay Garrett

Clay’s interest in natural history and outdoor pursuits led him to southern Utah nearly a decade ago, where he discovered a new passion working for a therapeutic wilderness program. Following two years working in the field with both adolescents and adults, Clay joined their leadership team where he quickly came to appreciate not only the skill with which the team managed their labyrinth of an operation, but more so their genuine support and caring for their staff, their clients, and their client’s families. In years following, Clay worked as Program Director for a young adult residential program, in WA, and as Director of Development and Programming for a young adult mentoring program in Sandpoint, ID.

Prior to his tenure in the realm of behavioral health, Clay worked for 12 years as a zoo herpetologist, traveling in the southwestern U.S., Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru. He is a widely published writer and artist, with dozens of scientific papers, and several hundred illustrations to his credit. Clay also spent ten years in publishing, where he served as Editor for AFH, Inc., Partner and Editor for Canyonlands Publishing Group, LLC, and Partner and Co-Director for Hyroglyf New Media LLC. When Clay is not working, he enjoys spending time with friends, and together they explore much of what the Rocky Mountains have to offer. Clay is an avid fly fisherman and enjoys catching, writing about, and painting trout.

House Manager

Kate Welle

As an adolescent, Kate was in and out of mental health treatment, which led to a deep curiosity about the human psyche, motivation, and trauma. She earned her BA in psychology and, not knowing how she wanted to use it, spent her twenties exploring. She completed two terms of Americorps, volunteered for three months on an olive farm in Greece, worked as a field guide in wilderness therapy, and eventually went to culinary school. These experiences, which were full of community, service, immersion in nature and hard work, created the scaffolding for a fulfilled life. Today, Kate owns a personal chef business, and is pursuing a MA in Counseling.

Books: Dandelion Wine, Endurance, A Confederacy of Dunces, The Stranger, The Giving Tree, She’s Come Undone, Ham on Rye, We Were the Mulvaneys, What is the What?, The Fountainhead, The Four Agreements

Music: Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Deafheaven, CAN, Frank Ocean, Bjork, Beach House, Nicholas Jaar, Deftones, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Fiona Apple, Joy Division, Sonic Youth, Elliot Smith

Hobbies: Fastpacking, trail running, aimless walks around new places, boxing, horses, podcasts, bread baking, live comedy, reading, traveling and dreaming of traveling

Quote: We’re all just walking each other home.” – Ram Dass

Mentor

Seamus Harrington

Seamus is a doctoral student at the University of Denver who specializes in working with adolescents with anxiety. Seamus first became interested in psychology during his undergrad at Bowdoin college, when a family member began to struggle with their mental health. Since then Seamus has studied at a few different schools and learned from great mentors in the field of psychology. Seamus received his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College where he played football and ran track.

Following four years in Maine, he spent two years as a 4th-grade teacher in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma before returning to graduate school.

Books: Raising Caine, Tattoos on the heart, The Road to Character, All the Harry Potter books, and any good murder mystery

Music: Not a huge music guy beyond workout mixes, but some favorite podcasts are: The Ryen Russilo Podcast, Pardon My Take, Binge Mode, and The Bill Simmons Podcast. Always looking for new recommendations too!

Hobbies: Sailing, Ping-Pong, CrossFit, Knitting, and taking Jimmer (his dog) to the park

Quote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor Frankl

Mentor

Stephen Allen

Stephen Allen’s interest in the field began as an eight year old in a counseling office. Stephen was quickly diagnosed and prescribed medications, but no one really talked to him about how he was feeling. No one really connected with Stephen or sought to understand him. Since then, Stephen has gone on to study humanistic psychology, focusing on how people grow from challenging situations. However, Stephen never forgot what it was like to be that misunderstood eight-year old. Above all, Stephen strives to connect with and understand the people he works with.

Books: On Becoming A Person, Ishmael, The Life of Pi, Man’s Search for Meaning, Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders, Adventure Therapy: Theory and Practice

Music: Bay Ledges, Matt Maeson, Ruston Kelley, Trevor Hall, Hodera, Arms Akimbo, the band CAMINO, Phillip LaRue, The Lumineers

Hobbies: Climbing, Hiking, Playing Music, Cooking, Skateboarding, Snowboarding, Sewing, Gardening

Quote: “The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story?” – Piscine Molitor Patel

Consulting Therapist - Family Workshops - Alumni Travel

Kim Mlinarik, LMHC, CDP

Kim is a licensed mental health counselor and addictions counselor. She has been working with individuals and families for over 19 years, and has served as the Clinical Director and Therapist for a therapeutic wilderness program, and a young adult transitional program.

Kim also enjoys exploring different cultures around the world. She guides international trips focused on personal growth and transformation, using the inspiration of the experience as a catalyst for participants to step into their dreams. She is an active hiker, snowboarder and yoga enthusiast, and enjoys camping and the beauty and magic of nature.

Primary Therapist

Lisa Lamoreaux, LPC, MA

Lisa’s approach in working with individuals is client-centered, and systemic. She believes every person is the master of their own experience, and her role as therapist is to support clients on their journey as they find answers, and work through issues causing them distress. She also sees individuals as part of a larger system, and believes that often times focusing on the system is fundamental to fostering effective change. She specializes in in the treatment of psychological trauma, and its subsequent issues including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. She has extensive experience working with life transitions, attachment issues, family system concerns, and developmental disabilities. Modalities include: Art Therapy, Mindfulness, Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and Systemic Theory.

Marketing Director

Erin Elisse

Erin has spent the past 15+ years in digital marketing. She promotes Urban Edge through strategy, keeping up the website, blog writing, press releases, emails, webinars, catalog creation, social platforms, networking, partnerships, media inquiries, community building and other business development opportunities.

Erin has her degree in English Literature with a strong emphasis in semiotics. She is currently working on her first novel.

Books: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Anything Paul Auster, Tolstoy, Barthes, The Count of Monte Cristo, Written On The Body, Atlas Shrugged, Murakami, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Music: Yann Tiersen, Bibio, Sylvan Esso, Lord Huron, Destroyer, Snakadaktal, Youth Lagoon, Majical Cloudz, Lambchop, Rubblebucket, Moderat, Red House Painters, Sam Amidon, First Aid Kit, Memoryhouse, Sufjan Stevens, Little Wings, Kishi Bashi, Wild Beasts, Chet Faker, STS9

Hobbies: Writing, Traveling, Photography, Gardening, Cooking, Baking, Climbing mountains, Skiing, Snowboarding, X-country skiing, Spending time with her husband and pup (really #1)

Quote: “Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abe Lincoln