Executive Director: Kit Bennett
E-mail: kit.d.bennett@gmail.com
Kit hails from London, England, where he began coaching in 2000. He served as Head Coach at Hatfield College, part of Durham University (UK), since coming stateside he has been passionate about expanding rowing opportunities for athletes and coaches in Ann Arbor and the Midwest. In 2009 Kit founded Skyline High School Crew, a program which has established itself among the region’s best, producing over 70 Midwest Championship Crews, 5 Team State Champions, and 8 Scholastic National Champions. The team has grown from 25 athletes to over 75 and has seen over 40 student-athletes compete at the next level in College. In 2023, Kit won the inaugural Women’s Coach of the Year for the Midwest Scholastic Region.
In 2012 Kit established Washtenaw Rowing Center (WRC), which now serves as a regional hub for middle school, high school, and u23/Elite rowers. In 2017 WRC partnered with Ann Arbor Public Schools and won the highly sought-after George Pocock Foundation “Erg Ed” grant, which incorporated rowing education officially into the AAPS district 6th-12th grade PE curriculum.
In the Spring of 2024, Kit was elevated to the dual role of Executive Director and Head Coach for both organizations.
Kit is US Rowing Level 3 High Performance certified and was part of the coaching staff for the US u19 National Team sculling section for three years. He coached athletes at the u19 World Championships in Trakai Lithuania in 2013, and in 2012 he led the US squad to multiple golds at the 2012 CanAmMex Regatta in Mexico City. Kit served as the Site Director for the u23 National Team Development Squad in 2023 and 2024 in Ann Arbor.
Kit completed four years as an assistant for the Varsity men’s program at the University of Michigan, where his athletes won multiple ACRA National Championships, as well as a Dad Vail title.
Kit is currently the Vice-Chairman for the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Association and Vice-President for the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (US Scholastic National Championships).
SMRF Board Members
Courtney Kosnik – Board Chair
Courtney Kosnik has worked in public accounting since 1996 and as an IRS Enrolled Agent since 2001. Before opening her own accounting firm, Courtney worked as an accountant for several small businesses, as a senior accountant for area CPA firms, and as a Trust Tax Specialist for National City Bank.
In 2013 Courtney completed her three-year fellowship with the National Tax Practice Institute. Following her passion, which is all things related to the tax code, Courtney teaches continuing education with the NTPI fellowship at their annual conference. She also teaches continuing education on the topic of Special Needs Trusts to both accountants and attorneys across the country. She is involved in the Michigan and National chapters of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and has participated in FLY-IN DAY, joining other IRS Enrolled Agents in Washington DC to meet with members of Congress to educate them about how taxpayers are affected by tax code changes.
Courtney opened Better Business Tax & Accounting (BBTA) in 2001 and has grown the firm to service over two thousand individual and business clients across the country. Her firm specializes in tax accounting for estates and trusts and services trustees and law firms nationwide. In 2021, Courtney expanded her accounting firm and opened a second location of BBTA Tax Advisors in Ann Arbor, proudly joining the Kerrytown Area where she currently resides with her husband and their five children (when they are home from college or their many adventures).
Joe Walton is a managing partner at Fight or Flight, a B2B agency specializing in integrated comms that deliver emotional and commercial impact. Founded in April 2020, Fight or Flight exists to challenge the misconception that B2B comms should be boring, dry, and dominated by whitepapers and webinars.
Joe has 15 years of experience creating and executing international communications programs for enterprises like Microsoft, BAE Systems, Capgemini, Honeywell, Symantec, and IBM, as well as high-growth scale-ups like Tableau, Concur, and Hybris.
Before founding Fight or Flight, Joe spent 13 years at global PR firm Weber Shandwick including four years as managing director of its technology and B2B practice. In this role,e he a team of 40 consultants in the firm’s London office, and led the IBM-Weber relationship across 40 markets in Europe.
