positions within the organization. As club President of The International Sisterhood of Skiers and Athletes, the first international NBS club (Negril, Jamaica), he moved on to become the Mid-West Regional Competition Director, coach for the national team of NBS and Olympic Scholarship Fund Administrator. In 2016 he was appointed the National Competition Director, and in 2018 elected NBS Executive Vice President. The Western Region of NBS partnered with the Far West Ski Association as a member council in 2018, to increase cultural awareness in snowsports and create opportunities to educate and expose member clubs and councils to diversity, equity and inclusion concepts.
Henri Rivers was elected National President of the NBS in 2020, and drove to change the name to the National Brotherhood of Snowsports in 2022, to welcome all snowsports disciplines and confirm inclusion of all members. He was elected to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Foundation Board of Trustees. During his first term of office, 2020-2024, Team NBS grew to 29 athletes in multiple disciplines. Henri grew the NBS sponsorship program in both number and amount of sponsorships. Club membership increased to 58 clubs and the winter outreach programs grew to 13 clubs with a grant budget just under $500,000. Henri was the inaugural recipient of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Award in 2021. NBS partnered
with Women of Winter (WoW) and the Professional Ski Association of America – American Association of Snowsports Instructors (PSIA-AASI) and offered 12 scholarships for the 2023-2024 season to the NBS membership to obtain a PSIA-AASI Alpine or Snowboard Level 1 instructor certification. Serving his second four-year term as NBS President, 2024-2028, NBS welcomed the Nubian Ski of the United Kingdom, as a Charter Member.
Henri serves on the Board of Directors of the International Skiing History Association, and has participated in numerous podcasts and seminars with the U.S. Ski & Snowboard, as he continues his extensive work in developing partnerships and collaborations throughout the snowsports industry.
Also attending the event was Henri’s wife, Karen. They are the proud parents of four children, including the NBS Rivers’ triplets, Helaina, Henri IV and Henniyah, who are all FIS racers. Henri IV participated in the XXV Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina in Slalom for the country of Jamaica, his mother’s native country. Henri represented NBS and the nation of Jamaica as Deputy Chef De Mission and Olympic Alpine Coach. The triplets will be starting their first year of college this fall, all skiing in the Northeast. He looks to the future when his children will represent his home nation of the United States and all the athletes of color striving to become elite level athletes.
While in Italy, he organized a joint media interview with Reuters, bringing African and Caribbean nations together to advocate for more inclusion at the Winter Games, which aired World Wide. Henri Rivers III is a leader ensuring the sustainability of snowsports not only in the United States, but around the world, through diversity, equity and inclusion.
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