The Senior Team at ACIS represents many decades of travel experience, and 36 years at ACIS. Together, they drive ACIS’ vision for a travel experience that you’ll want to encounter again and again. They ensure ACIS’ trips run smoothly; stay focused on education and fun; and are consistent in quality trip after trip.
ACIS Senior Team
Joel Cody
Nick Atkinson
Laura Smart
JOEL CODY, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer
Hometown: Ipswich, MA
Time at ACIS: since 1999
E-mail: jcody@acis.com
Not one to play favorites:
Joel has toured four continents and fifteen countries but when asked to name her favorite of those what does she say? All fifteen, of course!
From the cradle to the corner office:
Educational travel is a natural place for Joel. Her father was an educator and her mother owned her own travel company. Joel’s very first educational travel experience took place when she was just 10 months old and her family packed up and moved to Germany.
Road trip:
During each summer of her childhood living in Germany, Joel’s parents would choose a different country, pack the three kids up in their VW camper, and spend a month exploring the new destination. Once that travel seed was planted, Joel found there was no going back.
Travel Tip:
Pack black.
“The interesting thing about travel is that not only do you learn about different people and cultures, but you also learn about yourself and your place in the world.” - Joel
Born: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hometown: Wrentham, MA
Time at ACIS: since 1988
E-mail: natkinson@acis.com
Bring him on your next trip to Europe:
Nick speaks French, German and Spanish.
Perpetually packing:
Nick was born in Buenos Aires, and with his parents moving from country to country every few years, his "home" went from Argentina to Belize to England to Spain to Italy to Hungary to China to Ecuador and to Romania
No stranger to strange lands:
Not only has Nick visited five continents, he’s lived on three of them.
Lure of the Taj Mahal:
He hopes to visit India sometime soon, though he says that no matter where in the world his travels take him next, that destination always becomes his new favorite place!
Travel Tip:
Don't lose your passport. (Yes, he admits it. He lost his once, while he was a tour manager with an ACIS group, no less!)
“How did I come to settle in the U.S.A.? That's a long story for another time, but suffice
it to say that my work at ACIS offers ample opportunity for me to pursue my lifelong
love of travel. Plus, when I'm not actually doing it, I love talking about it!” - Nick
LAURA SMART, Vice President, Sales
Born: Cohasset, MA
Time at ACIS: since 1996
E-mail: lsmart@acis.com
Sparking the dream:
At thirteen years old, Laura earned the money for her first plane ticket and visited a friend in Sweden, sparking a passion that has influenced every aspect of her life since. To say that Laura merely has the travel bug doesn’t quite explain it. It’s more like a travel addiction.
While the other kids were lifeguards or babysitting:
Laura spent her high school summer vacation in an AFS program to Peru. For two and a half months she lived with a family and immersed herself into a culture different than her own.
When that junior semester or year isn’t quite enough:
Beginning after just her freshman year in college, Laura took part in a summer program in Guanajuato, Mexico. She followed this up with a semester in Cologne, Germany and then on to the Universidad Compultense, Madrid for her junior year.
Once a globetrotter, always a globetrotter:
Post college graduation, Laura moved down to Costa Rica for an internship. A few months later, she returned to Boston, waiting tables until she had saved enough money for a plane ticket, and then packed up and traveled overseas once again to live in Madrid for another year and a half.
“Over the years a favorite part of my job is meeting ACIS Group Leaders and participants overseas—from Cuba, Argentina and Costa Rica to Madrid and Paris. It is so exciting to see students on their first trip because I know the power travel has to change lives; after all, it changed mine.” - Laura
