About Us

Group Coordinators, a destination management company, was founded in 1985, by Julie Saucier. In November of 2022, Andreas and Michelle John acquired the company to add to their vision of inspiring others to live their life to the fullest. They are the proud founders/owners of a regional lifestyle magazine called Nspire Magazine, which Andreas has been publishing for over a decade. In addition, they own Nspire Tours, which their son, Kyler, operates. Michelle has been serving people as a nurse for the past 20 years, and made a decision to join the family business to follow her passion of creating meaningful experiences for others to enjoy. We are committed to provide memorable experiences for our guests and will focus on our niche of coordinating group tours, events, and activities.

 

 

Our Team

 

Michelle John, Owner

Michelle worked as a registered nurse before acquiring Group Coordinators with her husband in 2022. She spent 20 years caring for patients mostly in the home health and hospice setting. In the final two years, she advanced to a clinical director role where she honed her leadership skills. This career allowed Michelle to master her organizational skills while providing empathetic services to the people and families that she cared for. It has been an impactful career that will remain a part of her existence for the remainder of her life.

Michelle was born and raised in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls. As a result, she is familiar with what the beautiful Pacific Northwest has to offer. Michelle has a passion for adventure and enjoys traveling, hiking, camping, kayaking, exploring, and recently learning the history of the area she grew up in.

Michelle has planned many vacation getaways for her family over the years, and always seeks adventure and memorable experiences. She has taken her family all over the region and abroad on exhilarating getaways as far as Europe and Mexico. Michelle considers planning to be one of her strengths and is looking forward to taking guests on unforgettable experiences!

 

Ali Shute, Guide

Ali has lived in the Coeur d’Alene area since 1979, after growing up in Virginia with an artist mom who gave her a love of the arts and an insatiable curiosity, and an attorney father who passed on his passion for history and literature. A graphic designer for over 25 years, and recently retired from the CDA Arts & Culture Alliance, Ali joined the Group Coordinator’s team this year because of her love of storytelling and looks forward to sharing a bit of history while imparting fun stories along the way.

Dick Jensen, Guide

Tour guide Dick Jensen loves history, science, and travel. Combining these interests, he ran a small tour operating business for 30 years based out of Spokane. He took hundreds over the years to the sights locally in Spokane area, regionally across the Pacific Northwest, and nationally across United States and Canada. Now, he has traveled to all 50 states, 6 Canadian Provinces, 4 Central America countries, and 12 European countries. Besides being a tour guide, he also wrote a book that covers almost 200 Spokane area historical Monuments and Historic Markers called “Spokane Set In Stone.” Now, he enjoys sharing the knowledge he has learned. Come along, we have fun sharing together.

Sheyna Rust, Guide

Sheyna was born and raised between Spokane and North Idaho, graduated from Post Falls and attended North Idaho College. She currently resides in Sandpoint,  where she enjoys all things outdoors such as fishing on the lakes, snowboarding at Schweitzer, hunting in the mountains and playing volleyball on the beach. Sheyna also has always had an infinity for history and geology and feels like these topics are somewhat of puzzle pieces that put together the modern day picture. She has family roots in the inland northwest that go back to the late 1800’s and therefore takes much pride in and loves to share her knowledge of the area. 

Harla Jean Biever, Tour Manager (retired)

Harla Jean started as a tour guide 30 years ago and became tour/office manager in 1992. She is responsible for gathering information about the Inland Northwest, past and present, to use as a reference for our guides and as a basis for putting together historically accurate and interesting tours of the area.

Harla Jean has taken thousands of Spokane conventioneers and tour groups through the Northwest and plans the outbound tours to destinations including the Oregon Coast, Seattle, Vancouver, BC, and Glacier and Yellowstone national parks.