Meet the Team

Jonathan Kalan

Co-Founder

Jonathan Kalan is an award-winning photographer, journalist and media entrepreneur. He’s traveled over 70 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 recently graduated from TED‘s inaugural Residency Program in New York City, along with Michael.

@KalanShoots | Linkedin | Email

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, along with Jonathan.

@youngbloodm | Linkedin | Email

Lala Franklin-Apted

Head 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.

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Taylor Floeck

Head of Community

Taylor is a professional problem-solving people-person. As a Philly native who thrives in the outdoors, she followed her long-time dream of moving to Colorado and has been exploring through mountains ever since. She never turns down adventure nor a challenge, so she left her beloved CO home to live out of a backpack in Nicaragua and Peru to hike the Huayhuash Circuit in the Cordillera Blanca. Life is short, and meant to be lived to the fullest! When she’s not out roaming nature or helping answer any and all Unsettled questions to assure your inquiry is answered, you can find her somewhere with dogs (always), out for a trail run, painting, doing yoga, reading in a hammock in the sunshine or finding the perfect campsite.

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Clara Mastronardi

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.

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Liza Schmidt

Global Operations Manager

Liza’s experience has taken her deep into the world of international education, first as an international student herself and then in a variety of management roles. She has managed international relations and study abroad programs at a major Colombian university, overseen student relations at an international experiential education provider, and managed volunteer programs at Colombian nonprofits. She brings all this on-the-ground experience, as well as her experience as a Location Manager and Experience Leader at Unsettled, to her role as Operations Manager where she kicks ass getting thing set up and working with our local partners! She currently lives in Medellín, Colombia where she founded La Vaina News, a weekly Spanglish news bulletin, and believes life is better when she can speak Spanish, dance salsa, make jam, and listen to people’s unique stories. Reach out to her to share yours or why you think your hometown could be our next best Unsettled destination!

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Corey Schultz

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.

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Patrick Elliott

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 recently made South America his newest home by moving to the mega city of São Paulo, Brazil, with his equally adventurous wife. As an Unsettled Experience Leader he also secretly hopes to further his quest of learning new languages, taking awesome pictures, and finding the world’s best ice cream.

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Lynne Scullard ( AKA "Scully" )

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 launches Unsettled’s first ever Cape Town retreats!

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Carlijn Rombout

Head of Community Growth

Born and raised in Amsterdam, with a Dutch passport and Indonesia heritage, Carlijn feels grateful for her many opportunities to travel. The journey of living an Unsettled life started in her third year of University when she traveled for 1 year through Southeast Asia with a mixed group of digital nomads and students. Living Unsettled is her path and where she feels most alive! She beliefs in experiences over possessions and her mission in life is to inspire others to emerge themselves in an Unsettled lifestyle for at least once in their lives. When not traveling, Carlijn can be found in a dance studio, zenning in a yoga pose, reading books on mindfulness, or sitting with a big silly smile on her face watching the sun rising or setting.

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Christiana Melinioti

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.

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Shitika Anand

Social Media Manager

Shitika is a social media strategist and a digital convert with a journalist’s heart. In the last 10 years, she has penned words for publications like Time Out, Grazia, Huffington Post, CNN, Forbes, and Cosmopolitan while living in New Delhi, Brisbane, Sydney, London, and Dubai. In an unexpected plot twist, she left her job with a top lifestyle magazine and set out on a 6-month digital nomad adventure that took her across Asia. She finally landed with Unsettled where she analyzes emojis on Instagram for a living and curates inspiring content (among many other things, of course!). When not scheduling posts on Facebook, connecting with our active online community, or sharing pics from our adventures on the ground, Shitika can be found making the perfect Old Fashioned cocktail or settling into a meditation session on her own quest for balance.

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Mel Cook

Location Manager, Cape Town

Mel Cook is a born and bred South African whose Instagram feed consists mainly of cute dog accounts, interior spaces and beautiful cutlery. She is Unsettled’s Cape Town Location Manager, a Bali Alum, is on the Unsettled admissions team and is a firm believer in finding the fun in every situation while she works on building a life of connectedness. She is highly passionate about female empowerment and is a co-leader for the Cape Town chapter of Ladies, Wine and Design – a movement geared towards championing women in the creative industry. Mel’s heart lies in all things creative, and this reflects in her work as an interior design lecturer, and founder/ head designer of interior design company, Cooked Studio. Some of Mel’s favorite things: “Too-full” glasses of wine, awesome conversations, and of course, pictures of your pets.

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Liliana Castro

Location Manager, Portugal

As an Indie magazines junkie, Liliana launched FES Agency and is a communication manager dedicated to tell stories and give the stage to startups, entrepreneurs, and creative projects. She is a dedicated do-er of things, with a special ability to get it all done even when working on multiple projects. Highly connected to Portugal’s startup scene,  she also launched Press Pause – an after-work networking event and Portuguese Women in Tech, a community that showcases the awesome things Portuguese women are doing in the tech industry. Nowadays she spends her time between communication, events, co-working spaces and is Unsettled’s Portuguese expert on the ground to help us connect to the vibrant local scene.

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Raúl Chávez

Service Designer

Raul 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…

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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.

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Albert Khoury

Director of MENA

Born in Beirut and bred all over, Albert found his way to the rocket ship that is Dubai, and jumped right on. Amidst the glam of the city, he found his niche in advertising, where he helped grow awesome brands while exploring his passions. With experience working in both global and boutique agencies, Albert honed his knowledge of social and digital advertising as he helped scale businesses ranging from the glamorous Etihad Airways, to the every day ADNOC Distribution, an energy company. 

After spending a decade in marketing and advertising with his feet firmly in the ground in the UAE, Albert is now looking forward to another exciting decade growing his knowledge and craft. A people person at heart, Albert is never without an anecdote to break the ice, and is always open to new friends and experiences that would teach him something new, or take him somewhere unexpected. After a serendipitous week sailing the seas of the British Virgin Islands, Albert found his sea legs, and made the move from the bustle of Dubai to an Unsettled future as MENA Directer. With a deep passion for story-telling, Albert is never without a camera in his hand.

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Ayesha Lobo

Unsettled Sailing Captain

Ayesha is an avid traveller, adventurer and entrepreneur. Her life is charmed with experiences that have taken her closer to her dream of exploring the world. As a sailor and founder of one of the top sailing institutions in India, she is known to be a legendary captain recognized for her contagious energy, lithe dance moves and a feisty approach to life. This badass Asian women’s champion hails for Mumbai city and is also listed vogues 25 under 25 most influential trendsetters.

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.

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