ABOUT US
Lisa Peña
Founder of Urban Hikes Kansas City
Lisa grew up in Kansas City, KS hiking through the woods behind her childhood home. She loves nature, while at the same time craving time in the city.
A former Peace Corps volunteer, avid hiker, backpacker and Christian, she loves to explore, internationally and locally. She sees beauty in the details all around us in Kansas City. Lisa started this business, inspired by Alex Kenin of Urban Hiker San Francisco.
She loves to share her city with others and promises that you’ll experience parts of the city you haven’t seen before.
Lisa speaks Spanish fluently, is a graduate of Sumner Academy and has her Masters of Public Administration from UMKC.
She received the KCK Toursim Champion award in 2021, was named a KCMO Urban Hero in 2023 and received the Kansas Mainstreet Merit Momentum Award in 2025.
Hear more about her entrepreneurial story from this video by J29 Creative Group
She has been highlighted in | Travel + Leisure Meet in the Middle You Tube Series | In Kansas City Magazine | One Tank Trips | KCUR | Midwest Living and Within the Realm Podcast just to name a few.
Lori Abiecunas
Urban Hikes Guide
Lori grew up in a small rural town in Central MO. Living in the country, she loved to fish, hunt and explore with her father. Now a KC local of 22 years, she has a deep love for traveling domestically and internationally. Some of her favorite trips include hiking along the Cotswald trail through the English countryside, exploring temples in Cambodia, walking a glacier in New Zealand and exploring the cities of Florence and Paris. Her love of photography goes hand in hand with her passion for exploring life and capturing her adventures so that others can share them with others.
“The real voyage of discovering consists not in seeking new landscapes, but seeing with new eyes” —Marcel Proust
Christy Ubelaker
Urban Hikes Guide
Christy is a Kansas Citian from both sides of the state line. Always up for a new adventure, she’s raced bicycles and played roller derby for 10 years. She spent many summers at lakes around Kansas and Missouri and would spend hours and hours exploring in the woods. These days you can find her and her corgi mix walking levees, alleyways and deep in the woods.
Asia Jones
Urban Hikes Guide
Asia is a freelance writer who uses multichannel communication to create authentic relationships between brands and their clients.
A Kansas City, Missouri native, she has recently discovered her passion for exploring Kansas City’s trails after leading hikes through the Quindaro Ruins located in Kansas City, Kansas.
Asia loves the auntie life and you can normally find her in downtown Kansas City, walking along parts of the Blue River trail or leading hikers through the history of the Quindaro Ruins.
Jenny Hines
Urban Hikes Guide
Jenny has lived throughout most of the US and overseas, but has called Kansas City home the last 43 years. She loves to hike, run, and participate in any type of outdoor activity.
In addition to being a realtor in both Kansas and Missouri, she is a International Relocation Coordinator and helps families from other countries settle into the area. She is also a local actor and performs in both plays and musicals throughout Kansas City. She is married to a wonderfully patient man and has four adult children. Family is the most important thing to her and nothing makes her happier than having the family all together.
Being an Urban Hikes guide and sharing Kansas City history is an absolute joy!
Gary Enrique Bradley-Lopez
Urban Hikes Guide
Gary Enrique Bradley-Lopez is a native of Kansas City, Kansas. He is a community involved individual who loves all things Wyandotte County, especially its history. He is a Community Engagement Bureau Manager for the Kansas City Beacon, a playwright, and a Doctorate of Education in Organizational leadership at Grand Canyon University. Gary visited the Quindaro Ruins when he was a Junior at Wyandotte High School and ever since has been in love with the environment, culture, and history.
Brittany Rees
Urban Hikes Guide
Brittany grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City and shortly after graduation, moved around the country with her family. After nearly 15 years, she moved back to Kansas City and got reacquainted with her home!
When she isn’t learning everything she can about Kansas City, Brittany spends her time playing roller derby, riding her motorcycle, and crocheting new projects. Brittany also enjoys finding all the hidden gems in Kansas City from a new coffee shop to a new bar to a shop off the beaten path!
Michelle McCreary
Urban Hikes KC Guide
Michelle has deep ties to Kansas City. Growing up in Lee’s Summit, she has spent the past decade living and working in the Midtown and Plaza areas, fully immersing herself in the heart of the city. Michelle is a senior at UMKC, where she is pursuing degrees in psychology and philosophy. When not studying, she works as a floral designer at Tobler’s Flowers near the historic 18th and Vine district, where she channels her creative energy.
Outside of work and academics, Michelle enjoys painting, road trips, cooking, and exploring Kansas City’s vibrant food and drink scene. She is also an avid outdoors enthusiast who loves hiking, kayaking, and camping whenever she can escape into nature.
Tara Stratton
Urban Hikes KC Guide
Tara grew up on a Kansas farm, but has called Westport, Rosedale, West Plaza, Waldo, Shawnee, and even Chicago home over the years. It wasn’t until moving to Shawnee that her interest in Kansas City history really took off. She enjoys leading urban hikes with others who are curious about the people who were here before us. Outside of urban hikes, you can find Tara designing educational courses in her consulting business, attending the gigs of her musical family, practicing yoga, or working in her garden.
Chad Montuori
Urban Hikes KC Guide
Chad Montuori has lived in Kansas City for over 20 years where he teaches Spanish. When he’s not in the classroom, he can be found on the trail, in the kitchen, or practicing one of the languages that speaks. An avid traveler, he enjoys visiting other countries, but also exploring the off the beaten path in Missouri and Kansas.
Amy Bousman
Urban Hikes KC Guide
Amy Bousman has led foraging hikes in the KC area for 16 years. Her passion for native edible and medicinal plants began while studying on the Rosebud Reservation and continued through herbal and farm apprenticeships, ecording native edible and medicinal plants that had been used by Lakota people 100 years prior. She now works full time as an Engagement Coordinator for the KS Department of Wildlife and Parks. Amy’s foraging hikes with Urban Hikes KC focus on sustainability, ethics, and safety, and she loves restoring native prairie and woodland at home. Amy offers private consultations to help homeowners and landowners identify which edible and medicinal plants are on their properties, with follow up recommendations to encourage home-based native food forests.
