The Team

Ruth has been in the hospitality industry for as long as she can remember. However, she took a brief hiatus after graduating from Rutgers University School of Business and started her career in marketing and advertising. But, after 5 years in the corporate world, she decided to fulfill her lifelong dream of opening a gourmet market, cafe and catering business. To continue her journey, Ruth enrolled in Culinary School in Philadelphia where she graduated top of her class. During this time, she interned at Lacroix at The Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia, and also worked at Di Bruno Brothers Cheese Shop – both renowned restaurants and gourmet markets in the Center City Philadelphia area.

In the true entrepreneur fashion that many of her current Align5 team members embrace, she opened Tastebuds Market and Catering in 2004. Ruth also spent many years catering for The University of Pennsylvania, Toll Brothers and many other businesses throughout the city. During her 10 years of owning and managing Tastebuds, she also moonlighted as a Private Chef and worked at QVC as a food stylist and recipe developer for cookbooks published through QVC. Following Tastebuds, she spent a few years as a private chef and estate manager for a prominent family in the Philadelphia region.

In 2016, following in her parent’s footsteps, Ruth decided to follow her dreams once again and moved to the Florida Keys. She began her time in Key West as a manager of Latitudes Restaurant on Sunset Key and then later in 2016, she joined us at The Retreat.

Ruth loves to create amazing experiences for everyone who comes to The Retreat. She will work with you from the time you are just thinking about coming to The Retreat to the time you leave, making sure you are having an amazing experience, helping you plan anything your heart desires, all while creating wonderful memories that will last a lifetime. In addition to being your concierge, Ruth loves to prepare amazing meals for everyone to enjoy. The kitchen is the heart of many homes, and that is no different at The Retreat.

Ruth moved down to The Florida Keys over 5 years ago and is working towards becoming a freshwater conch. To this day if you are born in Key West, you are known as a conch. If you are born elsewhere, but live in Key West for 7 years, you become a freshwater conch. Besides cooking, Ruth loves to spend the day on the boat fishing the gorgeous waters of Marathon. She also loves to travel, hike, ski and spend time with her boyfriend and their two doggies as much as they can.

Sarah’s family of two has now grown to a family of four. When she isn’t working, or chasing her two children, her hobbies are fishing and boating, camping, cooking, and exercise. She decided to take her love for her favorite form of spiritual and physical exercise further by adding yoga teacher to her resume in 2018, graduating from the Shakti School of Yoga.

When Sarah is not giving the most amazing massages to locals and visitors alike in the Florida Keys, she is also using her creative side to help us plan and create amazing experiences for our guests at The Retreat. Her latest is creating a Yoga Retreat for our guests.

Whether teaching a yoga class or performing bodywork, Sarah’s eclectic background and experience working with individuals of all walks of life with various needs is clear, as is her passion for helping each client feel and become the best version of themselves in every aspect. Sometimes it’s hard to make time to take care of yourself during your normal day-to-day routine. But, when you are down at The Retreat, we have created an atmosphere that encourages relaxation, and you don’t miss out on “The Treat” of a massage or yoga class with Sarah. You, and your mind and body, will be very thankful.

In addition to helping create the amazing experiences at The Retreat for our guests, she is also the assistant property manager at Sunset Point at The Retreat and heads up our housekeeping staff at both properties.

Traci is originally from New Jersey and moved down to The Keys 4 years ago to be closer to her family. She really enjoys working with and meeting new people and always says “if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.“

In her downtime, Traci likes to relax with her husband and two sons and enjoys many a Sunday going to the beach, getting out on the boat and just enjoying their lives down here in The Florida Keys.

Whether for fun, food, or sport, his passion is the ocean and helping preserve it for our future generations to enjoy as well. He has a great knowledge of the local and surrounding waters, as well as the variety of species that are indigenous to this region. He loves to dive, free dive, spearfish, as well as hook and line fish for which he has had great success in doing so.

If you decide to rent our boat during your stay at The Retreat, Tiz will take the time with you to show you all the bells and whistles of our 32 ft Center Console Sailfish, aka, The Double Trouble. He will give you some pointers on navigating the unique waters of The Florida Keys and of course he is available for hire to be your Guide for the day and get you on the fish.

Tiz takes pride in helping others “catch their first” or just putting a smile on their face while they relax and have fun. In addition to fishing The Reef, he also spends many hours 20-30 miles Off Shore catching grouper, tuna, wahoo and who knows what else he might reel in. Planning a charter with Tiz for either fishing, snorkeling, diving or even a sunset cruise will sure to be one of the highlights of your time with us down at The Retreat.