Who’s the crew behind Unsettled? Meet our incredible team…
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.
Michael Youngblood
Co-Founder
Michael is an adventurer and entrepreneur who loves starting new (ad)ventures in work and in life. In addition to Unsettled, he is the co-founder of Idea / Shift, a digital creative agency for early stage ventures.
He is the co-founder of Innovations Stories, a multimedia storytelling publication out of MIT and has a decade of experience as an entrepreneur or innovator building new ventures and programs for Fortune 500 companies, investors, and leading academic institutions.
He’s an avid mountain and road biker, sailor, traveler, and backcountry explorer. He recently graduated from TED’s inaugural Residency Program in New York City. Email Michael.
Leilani Franklin-Apted
VP of Experience
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 can be found doing on Unsettled retreats as the Head of Experience. Email Lala.
Clara Mastronardi
Global Experience Leader
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Clara is a global soul with a flair for adventure and exploration. She has spent the last 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 before she returned home to join Unsettled in sharing the rich art, culture, and creative scenes that give Buenos Aires its unique flavor. She cares deeply about creative personal connections and living a balanced life – something she does regularly through her yoga and meditation practice, sharing a meal with friends, and hunting down Buenos Aires’s newest cultural hidden gems. Email Clara.
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.
Lynne Scullard (AKA "Scully")
Global Experience Leader
A Cape Town native, Lynne’s career has been filled with projects aimed at reducing unemployment, increasing skills transfer, and developing human potential in a desire to live a “life less ordinary.” She is the founder of many firsts in South Africa, including the first in-cinema coffee bar, the first pizzeria in Soweto and Scully Scooters, South Africa’s first business-on-a-bike scooter employment initiative. An avid traveller and Unsettled Experience Leader, she is drawn to anything that lets her experience new cultures, places, and people (preferably on a scooter herself!). She is Certified Entrepreneur Mentor who loves partnering in the development stage of new and growing businesses. Ask her about her own life journey, including her days as a ski bum and sous chef and find her zipping around as she runs Unsettled’s Cape Town retreats! Email Scully.
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.
Dan Pierson
Marketing & Partnerships
Bill Gates once told Dan that the only thing you can’t buy more of is time, and he’s been trying to make the most of it ever since. His adventures in the last decade have taken him to 50+ countries, including long bicycle rides across the United States and New Zealand and a 300 mile walk from Havana to Trinidad, Cuba.
Before Unsettled, Dan started a company leading community-driven adventure travel on five continents. He’s worked in marketing at Lyft, venture capital at the Collaborative Fund, helped launch Airbnb’s Experiences program, and created live programming for the Rockefeller Foundation. He’s also the creator of Subway Sets, a sold-out concert series bringing New York’s best underground musicians up to rooftops above the city. Email Dan.
Meghan Rutigliano
Programming & Partnerships
Megs is passionate about building community through shared experiences and co-learning. Before she joined the Unsettled Team in June 2020, she worked at Burning Man Project for 12 years as the Head of the Global Network where she nurtured year-round community through in-person and online gatherings.
She’s traveled extensively throughout Europe and South America and loves allowing change to be the source of her creativity. She speaks Spanish and French, is currently studying Portuguese, and moonlights as a jazz singer, emcee, and Creative Director, igniting experiences for festival goers and online adventurers across the world…and the far reaches of the internet. Email Megs.
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
Email Mel.
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.
Alam Setiabudy
Location Manager, Bali
Ayesha Lobo
Unsettled Sailing Captain
She’s a go-getter, and one who looks forward to crossing new hurdles and surpassing her own accomplishments. While enjoying a nice cup of tea she loves sharing stories inspired from her various travels and experiences. She is heavily involved in coaching and mentoring many sailing enthusiasts in India and while she’s not busy promoting sailing she rock climbs, scuba dives, bungee jumps, paddle boards and hikes. She loves living her life to the fullest and anything less than that is something she will not settle for. Email Ayesha.
Raúl Chávez
Service Designer
Raúl is a service and product designer who loves to solve problems. Born and raised in Guadalajara, Raul have been on the move in the last years living in London, Montreal, Playa del Carmen, Santiago de Chile and recently made Mexico City his newest home. Having worked across the educational sector in South America, he learned that working collaborative and creating social value through empathy is the way to deal with global challenges. He loves to connect people and purpose through design, entrepreneurship and innovation. When not sticking post-its to the wall, doodling around or drawing concept maps, you will find him exploring local markets looking for the best spots to eat, designing and building stuff or at some art/music show. He believes that common sense, a pencil and a paper are always the starting point for solving any problem. He’s also the best person to follow for taco and mezcal tastings… Email Raúl.
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.
Naomi Matlow
Content Editor
Naomi is from Toronto, Canada but can feel equally at home anywhere there is sunshine, coffee, and philosophical conversation. She has wanted to be a writer ever since she can remember, turning her early sticker books into multi-part storytelling projects. She feels the most creative while exploring new cultures, meeting people from all walks of life, and experiencing the common threads that make us all human. With a background in writing for the stage, Naomi has fallen in love with travel writing and is thrilled to bring her passion for people, self-discovery and adventure to the Unsettled blog. When she is not writing, Naomi enjoys listening to podcasts, especially On Being with Krista Tippett, watching comedy specials, practicing yoga or meditation, and planning her next trip to an ocean somewhere. Email Naomi.
Gizella Rizo Patrón
Location Manager, Peru
Having lived the life of both a local and an expat, Gizella was born in Peru and raised in Ecuador before returning to Lima in her early twenties. She immersed herself in the study of psychology and has worked as both a cognitive behavioral psychotherapist and certified life coach in order to help people connect more deeply to their personal journeys. With a background in hospitality, she regularly welcomes visitors to Peru from around the world, sharing her local knowledge and unique perspective on Peruvian culture. In her down time, you can find Gizella riding local Paso horses, working on her blog, cooking up some delicious vegetarian food, or diving into new intellectual pursuits to quench her curiosity. Email Gizella.
Unsettled is a global community for those who embrace the unknown and value meaningful human connection. Our mission is to inspire a lifelong pursuit of growth, meaning, and adventure through travel and shared experiences.
