Our Team
We could only do what we do with the enormous gift of our generous volunteers who make these retreats happen. We have a wonderful selection of talented folks to help staff our retreats.
Our River Helpers join us for Sunday of our retreat and are paired for a one on one experience with our participants. This has always been a top highlight of the weekend for our women participants.
Staff & River Helpers
Board President & Co-Founder
Janine Small, a lifelong Vermont resident, embodies a deep connection to the state's woods and waters. Her father was an avid outdoorsman who taught her how to fly fish at young age. While in college, she combined her love of fly fishing with her social work career and volunteered as a fly fishing instructor with Casting for Recovery for many years. During that time, she formed lifelong friendships with other women who have been devoted to teaching fly fishing and promoting women in the sport. Janine and several close friends co-founded Hope on the Rise in 2012 with the desire to offer healing fly fishing retreats to women with any type of cancer.
Janine has a Master's degree in Social Work and has been a clinical social worker in healthcare settings for 25 years. She owned a private counseling practice, managed a team of social workers at a regional hospital, and facilitated a variety of women's support groups that included using outdoor activities to promote healing. In addition to her clinical social work career, she is a licensed fly fishing guide and she owns Cold River Outfitters, a full-service guiding operation that offers fly fishing instruction and trips throughout Central and Southern Vermont.
Janine Small
Carroll Rhulman
Board Member, Nurse & Participant Support & Co-Founder
Carroll Ruhlman was birthed into a nomadic military family, which probably explains her lifelong love of travel and adventure. Carroll’s San Diego grandma was a base for her family when her dad was deployed and it’s where she graduated from college. After getting her BS in nursing, Carroll’s dad, an Army Colonel, swore her into the Army Nurse Corps. Her three year service included a year in Vietnam as an ER nurse. Following her discharge, she graduated from a nurse anesthesia program and headed to St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Here she would spend the next 50 years providing anesthesia services to her community, and raising two daughters with her amazing husband, Donald. These cooperative daughters have blessed them with four grandchildren to adventure with.
Always one to give time to her community, Carroll now volunteers at her town’s science museum, history center, and library used book store. Spring finds her germinating and potting over 100 tomato and 75 pepper plants to grow and give away to friends. (She keeps a few for her own garden!)
Carroll’s sporting adventures over the years have included skiing, horseback riding, rock climbing, scuba diving, parachuting, softball, volleyball, soaring, and then in 2000 she was introduced to the sport of fly fishing.
As a breast cancer survivor, she was eligible to attend a free woman’s weekend fly fishing retreat called Casting for Recovery. In addition to the beautiful bonding with other women breast cancer survivors, she had a taste of a sport she would come to love. She immediately became a retreat volunteer and a few years later helped to organize HOPE ON THE RISE, a 501 c3 non profit organization offering free fly fishing retreats for women with any type of cancer. Fly fishing has taken her around the world with a group of women she calls her “fishing sisters.” These amazing women, along with other retreat volunteers, fly fishing instructors, river helpers and our passionate board, are the planners, fund raisers, and the heart of HOPE ON THE RISE.
Molly Reeve
Board Member, Communications Coordinator
Molly joins the Board of Hope on the Rise with a unique blend of small business management and a deep personal connection to the healing power of fly fishing. With over two decades of experience supporting the family operations of Three Rivers Lodge, a wilderness fly fishing lodge in Labrador, Canada, Molly gained invaluable experience in managing guest and lodge logistics for 80 rods per season, ensuring seamless and memorable experiences. This, coupled with her lifelong involvement in fly fishing, has instilled a deep appreciation for the therapeutic benefits of connecting with nature. Molly's personal connection to the challenges faced by women with cancer was deepened by the loss of her twin sister to breast cancer.
A lifelong advocate for the outdoors, Molly holds a B.S. in Environmental Education and completed an Outdoor Educator Semester with NOLS in the Rocky Mountains. Her extensive outdoor experience includes roles as a ski patroller, river guide in Idaho, and summer camp director, as well as many river trips, including the Grand Canyon and San Juan River. Her expertise in outdoor skills and as a Wilderness First Responder further strengthens her connection to Hope on the Rise's mission.
Molly brings a diverse range of talents to Hope on the Rise, including a deep love of the outdoors and travel, and a creative spirit that shines through her graphic design, watercolor painting, and work on the family's maple syrup and farm operation with two golden retrievers in Kirby, Vermont.
Board Member, Angling Community & Donor Relations
Robin Reeve, a veteran, life-long fly angler and a father of three, joined the board of HOTR after a second career of 26 years owning and managing Three Rivers Lodge, a wilderness fly fishing camp in Labrador. His contacts and experiences as an outfitter fostered countless relationships within the fly fishing community, opening doors for HOTR to a host of caring personalities as well as many of the venues where HOTR retreats can be held. Robin’s family, like so many, has been profoundly affected by cancer. He is “all in” for this endeavor of Hope.
Robin Reeve
Board Member, Treasurer
Maria Williams is the newest member of Hope On The Rise, joining the organization in June 2025. Throughout her life, she has had family and friends affected by cancer with both of her parents dying of cancer. Because of that, she participated in various activities related to raising money for cancer research. She met her partner Chris in 2005, an avid fly fisherman, and learned how to fly fish in 2006.
Maria Williams
If you’re interested in getting involved, please contact us. We are always looking for outreach volunteers, river helpers, and occasionally retreat staff to support our programs.