- January 9, 2026
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Jennifer and Dan Vigne. Jennifer is the CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County. She’s held that role since 2015. Prior to that she was in education and banking, overseeing marketing and development for Saint Stephens Episcopal School in Bradenton and marketing for Bank of America in the Tampa Bay area. Dan is the managing director of J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Sarasota. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Dan was with several other banks, including Northern Trust, Wachovia/Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
Hiking adventures. The Vignes, married 31 years with three adult children, took at least one big hiking/camping trip a year when the kids were younger. Destinations ranged from Arizona to Colorado to Utah and many Florida state parks. Post-pandemic the couple — he’s 58, she’s 57 — have taken their annual hike trips up several notches. The list includes Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains in Peru in 2022; Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps in 2023; the Canadian Rockies in 2024; and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in Africa 2025. The Vignes have done other adventures together, including Spartan races, marathons and triathlons. “Anything,” says Jennifer, “that challenges the mind, body and spirit.”
Global reach: The trips, say the Vignes, are memorable for not only the physical and mental challenges but the learning experiences. “It’s invigorating learning so much about other cultures,” Jennifer says. On the Mount Kilimanjaro trip specifically, they recalled having dinner at base camps, which are essentially huts, with people from Poland, Italy, Russia and other far-flung locales. “It was really like the U.N.,” she adds.
Keep going: The mental side of the adventures can be just as challenging as the physical, both Vignes say. “The mental side is more important in many ways than the physical side,” Jennifer says. “That’s what can really set you apart in life.”
You got this: Dan often says motivational phrases to himself while climbing, with one goal in mind: relentless forward motion. One of his mantras — when the race gets longer, I get stronger — is a play on a popular phrase in endurance races and ultra-marathons. And it’s all the more necessary on something like Mount Kilimanjaro, where for a portion of the climb it’s pitch-black dark and minus 10 degrees celsius. “I kept talking to myself to psych myself up,” he says. “It was really hard.”
Life’s blessings: Jennifer, meanwhile, motivates herself with different phrases, usually Christian songs and prayers. “I was deep in prayer” on Mount Kilimanjaro, she says. “I was meditating. … I really had a big sense of peace, and I felt an intense amount of focus.” A Biblical passage she repeats regularly is the well-known phrase from Numbers 6:24-26, a blessing for God’s protection. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
Down hill: One last challenge awaited Jennier and Dan when they arrived at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro: they were only halfway done. It’s an odd mix of euphoria and dread many others who have reached that summit have talked about. But the Vignes again pushed forward, or in this case, down. “Our bodies are capable of doing far more than we think we can do,” says Jennifer.
Training days: On the physical side, the Vignes each workout consistently, with a high quotient of High-Intensity Interval Training (HITT) at the top of the list. They take classes at OrangeTheory and other gyms, and Jennifer completed the Chicago Marathon last October — her 10th and what she calls her final marathon. They get up most mornings at 5 a.m and exercise before work. “We are always doing things to stay moving," Jennifer says. “We want to stay as physical as we can for as long as we can.”
On the clock: As fit as they are, the couple also says many of their adventures can be humbling. Like at Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps, they completed a 100-mile hike over seven days, which, says Jennifer, “was amazing.” There were also “uber-high class” athletes who did it in 24 hours, she adds.
North by south: The Vignes are looking forward to more hiking adventures. One, planned for August 2026, is to climb the Dolomites, a Northern Italy mountain range. Another trip they hope to get to is Patagonia in South America. There is a "because it’s there” element to why the Vignes choose the hikes and climbs they do, and there’s also the perspective it gives them both. “When you put yourself into this huge mountain,” says Jennifer, “everything else in the world will seem very small."
