Meet Our Team in Vienna, VA

Sarah Niles
Scuba Experience Manager
Sarah has a degree in Aerospace Engineering and recently left her engineering role to pursue her passion for diving, joining the Diventures team in May 2024. She is currently on the pathway to earning her SSI Instructor certification. Sarah earned her Open Water certification while participating in Spaceflight Operations. She continued diving and earned her PADI Advanced Open Water Diver with certifications in Enriched Air, Deep Diving, and Photography. Her underwater adventures have taken her to breathtaking locations, including Cozumel, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, and the Red Sea near El Gouna, Egypt.

Walter Sweeney
Scuba Experience Manager
Walter was first introduced to diving at age 15 when he and his mother in Egypt’s Red Sea. Many years later, Walter took the giant stride into his life as a dive professional. Since then, Walter has taught in Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Thailand, and Honduras where he has grown to love not only introducing people to the water for the first time, but also mentoring new dive professionals and helping them to navigate their early career.

Andrew Bodyk
Independent Assistant Instructor
Andrew was certified in July 2005 in Clarksville, Tennessee while stationed at Fort Campbell with his wife, LTC Nancy Bodyk (Ret). He convinced his wife to get certified in 2008 and made scuba diving a family activity. Andrew advanced through other specialties including Deep Diver, Wreck Diver, Aquarium Diver, Enriched Air Diver, Dry Suit Diver, Search and Recovery and Under Water Hunter. He earned his Advanced Open Water certification in November 2007, Rescue Diver in July 2014 and Master Scuba Diver in September 2014. He completed the Divemaster Program in July 2015.

Drew Smith
Independent Open Water Diver InstructorService Technician
Drew grew up in and around the water, snorkeling in Florida on vacation, and listening to his dad’s scuba adventures. Drew was certified in 2004 in a local Virginia quarry, having no idea where that initial class would take him. In preparing for a family trip to Aruba to finally do some diving with his dad & brother, Drew took his advanced open water course and hasn’t looked back since. He has since grown into an avid technical diver who loves the challenges of deep wrecks and cave diving. He enjoys sharing his diverse knowledge of different diving equipment and configurations with those looking to expand their knowledge and skills beyond their initial certification. Drew’s also a highly experienced equipment technician, servicing most major brands. His favorite sites to date are the wrecks off the Florida coast and in Scapa Flow, Scotland.

Duane Gabor
Independent Open Water Diver Instructor
Duane got an early start in diving by earning his Junior Open Water certification in 1984 and hasn’t stopped diving since. He’s currently a Master Scuba Diver Trainer and Staff Instructor and can teach divers of all levels – from Open Water, Advanced, Rescue up to the professional level (Dive Master, Assistant Instructor). He particularly loves teaching specialties like Night Diving, Dry Suit Diving, Drift Diving, Wreck Diving, and Boat Diving. Duane is also a technical diver, a cylinder inspector and a gas blender at Diventures. Duane’s always up for dive – from a quarry to a reef to a wreck – that’s why he’s been doing it for 40 years! You might see him around the shop or on one of our trips – especially if it’s Bonaire or Grand Cayman.

Grace Smith
Customer Experience Specialist
Grace has a background in outdoor education and loves every opportunity to introduce people to the beauty of our planet! She was certified to dive in the Great Lakes and has a passion for wrecks and coastal lifesaving history. She recently began to revisit her passion for diving and is excited to continue her SCUBA education. She looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm with the rich Diventures community in and out of the shop!

Jack Hensley
Customer Experience Specialist
Jack has been diving since age 16, starting in his home waters of the cold and murky Puget Sound. Jack’s passions for teaching and learning, marine ecology, and building relationships with people from all walks of life combine perfectly into his role at Diventures. Jack especially enjoys diving deep and pushing limits, both in and out of scuba. Jack’s philosophy is to “say yes” and jump with both feet into every adventure that arises!

Jeff Brown
Independent Open Water Diver Instructor
Jeff was enticed by a former colleague to try scuba diving and became hooked after his first dive. He earned his Open Water certification in 1991 and dove sporadically for years. He eventually got back to diving more regularly and moved on to earn his Advanced Open Water certification, Rescue certification, Master Scuba Diver and various specialties. Jeff decided to go pro so that he could share his fascination for scuba diving with others. Jeff’s next goal is to continue to learn new specialties and to work towards an Instructor Trainer certification.

Josh Holman
Independent Assistant Instructor
Joshua started diving career in July 2015 with the intention of being certified before attending a destination wedding in Saint Lucia. He was quickly bitten by the scuba bug and decided to continue with the sport. Joshua completed his Master Diver certification in October 2016 after completing 50 dives and 10 certifications (only 5 are required). 2017 introduced Technical Diving and the idea of moving to a professional diver by completing the Divemaster certification in November 2017. Joshua is excited to be assisting instructors who trained him with classes and further his love of diving.

Joshua Ruby
Customer Experience Specialist
A veteran of the U.S Marine Corp and current U.S Diplomate Joshua started working at Diventures in February of ’22 as he believes in Divestures, Vision and Values. Joshua was certified as a PADI open water Diver in 2007 while on R&R in Oahu Hawaii from Africa and later finished his PADI Advanced Open water in later 2009 in Southern California while visiting family. Joshua is currently working to become an SSI Dive professional and instructor. Joshua’s dive experience ranges from the Hawaiian Islands, California, Pacific Northwest and the Mediterranean.

Liv Jones
Customer Experience SpecialistIndependent Open Water Instructor
Liv got certified when they were 12 years old and fell in love with it! Liv was able to go through the internship program at Rainbow Reef Diver Center in Key Largo, Florida in 2020 just at the start of Covid. They were able to complete the internship, receive their PADI Open Water Instructor certification and have been teaching ever since! They were fortunate enough to be able to take a trip to Saint Martin for 3 months and live and teach on boats. Liv is very passionate about making sure all their divers are being safe and comfortable in the water as well as practicing good environmentally conscious decisions in everything they do in and around the water!
Email: [email protected]

Marlene Wagner
Independent Assistant Instructor
Marlene started diving in 2014 and quickly fell in love with the sport. She worked her way up to the requirements for Divemaster and successfully completed the program in 2017. Marlene has completed 6 recreational specialties with wreck and coral restoration being her favorites. She is also a certified technical diver and working on furthering her technical diving skills.

Nancy Bodyk
Independent Divemaster
Nancy was certified in August 2008 at Dutch Springs Quarry in Pennsylvania. She advanced through other specialties including Wreck Dive, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Under Water Hunter, Under Water Navigator, Deep Diver, Enriched Air Dive, Dry Suit Diver, Aquarium Diver and Search & Recovery. Nancy earned her Advanced Open Water in August 2008, Rescue Diver in July 2014 and Master Scuba Diver in November 2015. She completed the Dive Master Program for PADI and SDI in October 2018.

Nathan Tanner
Customer Experience Specialist
Nathan has been diving for over 30 years and has been a pro since 2009. In the past, he was a swim coach, lifeguard, and swim instructor for 13+ years. He is from Florida where he dove all over, including the EPCOT living seas aquarium and one of his favorite dive spots is the Upper Keys. He loves teaching and answering any questions about water!

Robert Daniels
Independent Open Water Instructor
Robert took his Open Water certification in September 2022 and fell in love with diving immediately. He went straight into multiple specialty courses, such as Underwater Navigator, Night, Deep, and Peak Performance Buoyancy. He then gained his Advanced Open Water certification, still enjoying every second, and decided to take it seriously by getting Rescue certified. Later on, he became a Divemaster in October 2022. He started off 2023 diving strong by becoming an Open Water Scuba Instructor in April. He’s excited to help others find the beauty and peace of diving.

Stephanie Cavanaugh
Social Media Marketing StrategistIndependent Open Water Instructor
Stephanie became enchanted with the underwater world in 1993 while snorkeling with family in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. A year later she obtained her Open Water certification in Grand Cayman and was completely hooked. Five years later, she obtained her Advanced Open Water certification in the Bahamas. After another 15+ years of diving and snorkeling all around the world, she became a Master Scuba Diver Trainer in 2013. As a self-proclaimed critter hunter and conservationist, some of her favorite aquatic experiences have included: diving with hammerhead sharks in the Caribbean and Red Seas, diving with manta rays in Hawaii and the Maldives, snorkeling with whale sharks in the Maldives, and coral restoration efforts in Florida. Stephanie also enjoys exploring scuba diving education through social media, generating creative marketing ideas, organizing conservation endeavors, and researching, planning, and coordinating scuba travel.

Traci Sontheimer
Independent Assistant InstructorService Technician
Traci discovered her love for scuba diving while on a family cruise in 1991 in Grand Cayman. She became a certified diver in 1994 and has been diving on almost all her vacations since then. She continued her scuba education by earning multiple specialties and in 2007 became a PADI Divemaster. In 2016 she became a service technician and enjoys this as her retirement job. In 2024 she became an SSI Assistant Instructor and is looking forward to sharing her love of scuba with others.