OUR TEAM

Founder, Recorders Without Borders

Lynn is an entrepreneur and Founder of Recorders without Borders. Though she has no musical talents, she saw the opportunity to share the unwanted recorder rolling around in her son’s closet with the children the family planned to visit in Tanzania, and the rest, they say, is history!

In October 2018, Lynn traveled to Kenya to facilitate a “Tune-Up” Workshop, visit existing Recorders without Borders schools and identify new schools.  Since then, she has accompanied music teachers on every trip, serving as program administrator, to witness the implementation of the program first hand. Each time she returns with new insights to allow Recorders without Borders to evolve to meet the needs of Kenyan educators and learners.

Since September of 2017, Lynn has volunteered with Scouting America facilitating connections between U.S. Scouts with Scouts from around the world. Her role with Recorders without Borders has provided an entree to Kenyan Scouting that continues to flourish. 

A longtime resident of Austin, Lynn’s education includes BA from the University of Virginia, 1980 and MBA, from the University of Texas, 1985. Her work experience focused on entrepreneurship and small business development.

Lynn lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, Hayden and golden doodle,Tucker.

Skye Sanford is the Creative Arts Department Coordinator at the International School of Kenya, and teaches Music Tech and Musical Theatre in the middle school. Over her 25 years of teaching, she has taught K-12 Band, Choir, General Music, Music Tech and Musical Theatre in the United States, India, China, and Kenya. She has a passion for facilitating active, hands-on musical experiences that spark creativity and joy. While teaching at the American Embassy School in New Delhi, India (2006-2016), she was able to take a year-long sabbatical to study and collect folk dances from various states and regions of India.

Skye earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Music Education (K-12 Choral/ General) from Lawrence University (WI) and a Master of Arts in Music Education with a concentration in Choral Studies and in Orff Schulwerk from the University of St. Thomas (MN). For most of her career, she has taught elementary general music, directed children's choirs, and loves teaching children how to play recorder. She is certified in Orff Schulwerk and has levels completed in Kodaly and Dalcroze. She also completed the Smithsonian Folkways World Music Pedagogy course and loves learning about local folk dance and music traditions wherever she lives. This past year, she worked with Recorders without Borders team and teaching artists during the planning, training, and video project. Skye is excited about creating a compilation of Kenyan folk songs for a new songbook project.

Board of Directors

Nicole Stevens was one of our first adventurous music teachers to travel to Kenya to pilot our program!  Since 2015, Nicole’s first hand experience has provided valuable expertise in her role as a member of our Board of Directors.

From the beginning, Nicole has been heavily involved in developing our curriculum and instructional materials. In March, 2017 Nicole made another pilot trip for Recorders without Borders, this time to Haiti. While there were some successes in teaching local teachers and working with an after school program, we determined this program was not feasible.

In the summers of 2017 and 2019, Nicole returned to Kenya to expand our program to additional schools and provide intermediate training for Second Year teachers. In particular, she taught the Teachers’ Workshops, visited schools to teach sample lessons and facilitated the final Showcases. From 2020-2022, Nicole supported our Kenyan teachers virtually. She also provided valuable input into our new vision for delivering recorder education to a broader audience based on the new addition of recorders into the Kenyan National Educational Curriculum. Consequently, in 2023, she oversaw the filming of fifteen new training videos. And in 2024, with her leadership we added eight more!

Nicole received a degree in Music Education from The University of Texas at Austin. She also received a certification in Special Education.

Nicole is the head music teacher at Casis Elementary School, in Austin, Texas. Each year, Nicole and her Casis Elementary Fifth grade students donate recorders and instructional materials to Recorders without Borders as their year-end service project.

Marion was invited to be a Founding Director of Recorders without Borders in 2015. With little musical experience, Marion and her husband started a youth worship band in their church. She realized how much joy music brings to so many people. The band traveled to Women’s homes, Nursing homes and even after school programs to play and encourage people. 

As a classroom teacher at public elementary and middle school schools for many years, Marion understands the challenges faced by both teachers and students. Volunteering on mission trips, showed her the transforming value of a simple musical instrument to a child with few material possessions.

Marion’s sewing expertise is evident on our website where she developed the instructions on How to Sew Recorder Covers. Many Kenyan learners have been the beneficiary of Marion’s and other volunteers’ beautiful handmade recorder covers.

In June, 2024, Marion had the opportunity to travel to Kenya with the Recorders without Borders team to visit existing Recorders without Borders schools. She experienced firsthand the pure joy of the teachers and student’s faces while playing the recorder. 

Marion lived in Phoenix, AZ for over twenty years. She received her BA in Elementary Education, with an ELL minor at Arizona Christian University in 2006. She received her MA from Grand Canyon University in 2008, in Reading, Curriculum and Instruction, meanwhile, teaching in the elementary public schools’ system. 

A Christian and farm girl at heart, Marion moved to a farm in Oregon with her family in 2010. While both Marion and her husband worked, they enjoy the farm life including horses, dogs and chickens. She also enjoys growing a seasonal garden and homesteading.