GARIN FONS

I get to call this lovely lady my wife. We got hitched in September 2013 in the Texas Hill Country. She is amazing. She graduated from the University of Texas School of Social Work in 2015 and has been working as a therapist ever since. She currently sees clients at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City. One of these days, we're gonna grab a bit of land, plant a big garden, and spend a lot more time cooking, reading, and maybe raising some little ones.

This is the other love of my life. Tilly. She's really good at fetching tennis balls and is an incredible trail dog for mountain bike rides and hikes.

Since moving to Texas and now Utah, I've made it a priority to spend as much time on a bike as possible. Nearly every day in Austin, you'd find me riding through City Park, the Greenbelt or any number of the great trails around Austin. In Utah, I spend my time a bit more time in the alpine terrain of Park City, but also venture out into the world class trails of Moab and St. George when I can.

In Texas, I raced Cat 1 / Open singlespeed mountain bikes in the Texas XC mountain bike circuit. I was Cat 2 State Champion for the 2015 XC season.

This photo is from an epic 225 mile Durango to Moab trip done in July 2014.

In Austin, I played baseball on a sandlot team called the East Austin Jardineros Baseball Club. We used all wood bats, kept the competition serious, but also did do our best to keep it cordial - in part by enjoying the cases of beer that our incredible sponsor, Hops & Grain, provided to us each game. The Sandlot league has grown to nearly 10 teams over the past three years, with teams like the Texas Playboys, The Cobras, The Senators and the Grackles. Check out a game sometime and enjoy the live music, dogs and true community that’s sprung up around this pastime.

I'm convinced that some of the best things in life happen when friends come together around food. That's part of the reason we have a great big garden and a dining room table that seats 10. There's also the weekend baking projects, the spring pickling, the winter roasts and so much in between. 

My classmates and friends at the University of Michigan's School of Information lived up to the University's motto. In the four or so years I spent in Ann Arbor, I studied Community Informatics and Information Policy and worked with good friends, faculty, and staff to develop an Open Education initiative, called Open.Michigan. While in Ann Arbor, I also helped start and operate a Friday morning breakfast salon called Selma Cafe.  

Latin America is a place I am happy to have had the good fortune of spending quite a bit of time: Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba. I'm not done yet.

Travel is pretty important to me. And, to have already seen so much of this planet amazes me - Europe, Latin America, North America, China. While it's great to get away, I value the opportunity to interact with new people in new places. Rarely do I return not feeling humbled by how lucky I have it.

I like small planes. I also like the idea that someday soon we might be able to realize the potential of affordable, small scale regional air transportation. Not sure how, just yet.