Current Team Members
Who’s the crew behind Unsettled?
Michael Youngblood
CEO & Co-Founder
Michael is an adventurer and entrepreneur who fully lives Unsettled’s values and vision across his life. He’s as likely to be found on an Unsettled retreat, behind his laptop, or exploring the world by bike, sailboat, or foot.
Before Unsettled, he was the Managing Editor at Innovations Journal, a publication co-hosted by Harvard, MIT, and George Mason University, where he researched and published on the topic of entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges.
He’s been a storyteller, teacher, and venture builder, but he’s most in a state of flow when he’s mountain biking, sailing, snowboarding, or exploring the wilderness somewhere. He’s a member of Sandbox and a TED Resident. Email Michael.
Clara Mastronardi
Director of Operations
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Clara is a global soul with a flair for adventure and exploration. Before joining Unsettled, she spent 6 years coordinating and producing events for art fairs, galleries and cultural institutions around Buenos Aires as a passionate leader in the arts. In 2017 she made the move and left her job with the Argentine Ministry of Culture to learn the art of living Unsettled. Her travels took her through Southeast Asia and she returned home and joined Unsettled as a Location Manager, sharing the rich art, culture, and creative scenes of Buenos Aires. She then ran retreats for Unsettled as an Experience Leader in Argentina, Peru and Bali. She recently made Patagonia her new home, where she works remotely as Unsettled’s Director of Operations and spends her spare time hiking, rock climbing, sharing a meal with friends, and tracking down new adventures. Email Clara.
Lynne Scullard (AKA "Scully")
Global Experience Leader
Marco Nigris
Captain
Marco is a high-functioning pirate, and water and wind are his natural habitat. Argentian and Italian, but living in Portugal he’s sailed thousands of miles at sea in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Pacific (and kiteboarded worldwide too). He currently owns a sailboat in Ibiza and charters it on the side.
When he’s not sailing or kiting, he works at the intersection of tech and business. He has a background as an engineer and currently works in fintech in Europe.
Past Team Members
Jonathan Kalan
Co-Founder
Jonathan Kalan is an award-winning photographer, journalist, media entrepreneur and TED Speaker. He’s traveled over 75 countries, and lived for extensive periods in Africa, the Middle East and Asia reporting for BBC, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, and Huffington Post, among others.
Before launching into Unsettled, he was the founding editor-in-chief of Timeline, a mobile-first newsroom designed to “break history”, providing deep historical context to breaking news and current affairs.
In his spare time, he hustles leaf plates and is an avid surfer, kayaker, biker, sailor and all-around adrenaline junkie. He is a member of Sandbox, and a TED Resident. Email Jonathan.
Corey Schultz
Global Experience Leader
Originally from Illinois, Corey knows something about embracing an Unsettled lifestyle. Feeling unfulfilled in his career as an educator and fundraiser for science museums and universities in the States, he left it all behind a few years ago for a new life in Southern Africa working with the Peace Corps. He lived among African Elephants, Spotted Hyenas, and Black Mambas in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where he worked as a primary school teacher and capacity builder. Today, as an Experience Leader, he is eager to curate exciting moments – from organizing book clubs and discovering new cooking techniques to spontaneous accent battles and learning a new joke in every language. Email Corey.
Erika Grammel
Virtual Experience Leader
Erika is a poly-passionate explorer. She has spent the last ten years putting her professional background to work in various fields, bringing the principles and power of entrepreneurialism to the arts and non-profit sectors. Her work experiences are all linked by her passion for building systems of interconnectivity, engagement, and equity. Her purpose is to harness creativity, opportunities, and ideas, and bring those resources to the whole.
A born and raised Hoosier, she produced and co-designed immersive events and pop-up experiences throughout Chicago. She is currently in Los Angeles hiking her way around Southern California with her dog Eva and completing a Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business. Email Erika.
Benjamin Trotter
Tech & Platforms Lead
Benjamin is an entrepreneur at heart, but a globetrotter at soul. Starting from an early age in Tennessee, his love of learning about other cultures became an obsession after writing to pen-pals. He spent his childhood learning Japanese, and at 15 took his first trip to Japan–a life-altering event that sparked the wanderlust which continues today.
After spending most of his career in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Benjamin jumped ship from corporate life to enjoy the freedom of the self-employed seas, where ideas, technology and execution provide the excitement and thrill of work.
Benjamin currently resides in Austin since 2011 after calling Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tokyo, San Francisco, and Sydney home. Email Benjamin.
Leilani Franklin-Apted
Chief Design Officer
Born in the states to a Californian-hippy mom and a Fijian-islander dad, Leilani (Lala) has lived in Asia since the age of 7. She is your quintessential multicultural TCK (that’s Third Culture Kid in plain speak) who has a hard time answering the question ‘so where are you from?’. Lala has called Thailand home for the past 18 years where she has indulged her love of art and design as a Bangkok-based fashion and textile designer, and freelance teaching artist. Her latest adventures have seen her walking across Spain, dancing Sevillanas, and exploring Europe as a digital nomad and the Creative Content Director for JetsettrAsia. She has a life-long fascination with creating “stories” that move and loves bringing seemingly mismatched pieces together into a thoughtful and inspiring whole, something she did for Unsettled as our Head of Experience Design. Email Lala, or follow her on LinkedIn.
Ayesha Lobo
Unsettled Captain
Shitika Anand
Head of Social
Shitika is a journalist, social media strategist and a digital convert. In the last 10 years, she’s lived in New Delhi, Brisbane, Sydney, London and Dubai, and has penned words for Time Out, Grazia, Huffington Post, CNN, Forbes, and Cosmopolitan among others. In early 2017, Shitika quit her job as an editor for a top fashion and lifestyle magazine in the Middle East, and chose to live the digital nomad life. That six-month transition phase took her on adventures all over Asia, and soon landed her with Unsettled, where she was our first Head of Social. When not scheduling posts on Facebook, Shitika can be found making the perfect Old Fashioned cocktail, and buying overpriced Diptyque candles to burn while she settles into a very unsettling Headspace meditation session. Balance!
Patrick Elliot
Experience Leader
Originally from Philly, Patrick has spent the past 15 years studying, living, and working around the world. He comes to Unsettled with a strong leadership background from his time in the U.S. Army and State Department where he served as a Platoon Leader in Iraq, a Company Commander in the Army National Guard, and a Foreign Affairs Officer for the U.S. State Department. He currently lives in Vietnam and works for the U.S. Department of State.
Kelly Sheila
Location Manager, Bali
Originally from Jakarta, Kelly has called Bali home for the past 5 years and has spent her time exploring everything the island has to offer and amassing a wide network of awesome people, places, and thing. With a background in hospitality and restaurant management and a side passion for fine art, she joins Unsettled in Bali to share her best cultural tips, tricks, and hotspots. Ask her about where to find the best beach dance party, her favorite local bites, her background in ceramic throwing, her surprising love of data entry, and her drone pilot husband. Email Kelly.
Victoria Viola
Location Manager, Buenos Aires
Victoria Viola was born by the sea, then she moved to the mountains and finally arrived to Buenos Aires at the age of three. She feels as much porteña as one can get. She’s got a Graduate Degree in Communications and worked for several years behind cameras until she accepted she wanted to be in front of one. Since then she’s been part of some indie plays and written some more. Together with Fran, her husband, they have travelled across four continents (but Africa is yet to be discovered). Victoria has a special talent for solving people’s problems, so when not helping curate local experiences in Buenos Aires with Unsettled, that can be found working for her social media and creative experiences agency that she founded called FUA. Email Victoria.
Christiana Melinioti
Global Experience Leader
An epic go-getter, Christiana (aka Christy) has spent the last five years facilitating local and international programs for entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs in her home country of Cyprus. With a focus on meaningful collaboration, exploring innovations, and building trust she has worked in everything from environmental and social projects to sustainable tourism initiatives, local festivals, and off-grid workshops.
To feed her own entrepreneurial and nomadic spirit she loves building multicultural communities where each individual can bring their unique skills, cultures, and perspectives… something she gets to do regularly as an Unsettled Experience Leader. Her spare time is filled whatever gets her moving – beautiful hikes, deep conversations, big laughs, busting a pose on the dance floor or yoga mat, and sharing her contagious energy on Unsettled trips. Email Christy.
Mel Cook
Location Manager, Cape Town
Unsettled is a global community for those who live and work differently.
Growth | Meaning | Adventure