Deborah Childs
AAA Group Travel Account Executive

Deborah’s accomplished career as a Group Travel professional includes 20 years with AAA Travel. After graduating from the University of St. Francis with a BA in Recreation Administration she coordinated Adult Programs for the Park Districts of St. Petersburg, Florida and the Village of Oak Park, Illinois. A transition to the travel business was the next step and over the years Deborah has honed her skills as a group specialist. Besides designing customized itineraries for groups traveling to all seven continents, she has also escorted scores of groups worldwide. Her expertise contributes to the unique collection of group tours and cruises offered by AAA. Notable Chicagoland clients have included WGN Radio, the Chicago Cubs, WFMT Fine Arts Radio, and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Mark DeCarlo
Actor, author and host of “Windy City Live”

2012 & 2011 Emmy Award winner, Comedian/Travel & Foodie Expert Mark DeCarlo was thrilled to win back to back Midwest Emmys for contributing his comedic whimsy to Chicago’s #1 daytime show, ABC’s Windy City LIVE. On the show, which premiered in May 2011 in Oprah Winfrey’s historic time slot, Mark hosts and produces comedic segments celebrating the people, places and slightly off-kilter characters that make Chicago the best city in America to work, play and live…May through October.

Prior to WCL, Mark rode the road less traveled for 4 seasons on the Travel Channel’s “Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo," scouring the U.S. for delicious food and the quirky zealots who champion ancestral recipes and down-home stories over mass-produced mush. It took 400 cities, and a lot of napkins, but through it all, a portrait of America… and its hungry people emerged. These hilarious stories – and previously secret recipes - are collected in Mark’s best selling new book, “A FORK ON THE ROAD: 400 Cities, 1 Stomach,” a comedictravelogue/cook book published by Lyons Press in 2011 to sparkling reviews.

Mark continues his book tour through 2012, traveling the country performing LIVEFoodie demos, Comedy shows, and hosting Travel, Music and Food Festivals. Mark also performswith his blues/rock band, Old Blues Eyes. Mark is also in-demand as a keynote speaker and comedic host for corporate clients at dozens of Fortune 500Companies.

In addition to continuing on WCL, Mark will host two new series in 2013. EconomicalECO, a How-To series that popularizes ways to radically reduce cost of living by choosing economical American products & services,without mutating into a radical, off-the-grid hippie and sleeping in a Yurt, premieres in early in 2013.

The second series, THIS vs THAT, is a show that blends science & comedy into an entertaining weekly hour of high energy hijinks. Mark, with co-hosts Brad Sherwood and Chris Tallman, guarantee laughter, knowledge and spit-takes. The show premieres January 2013.

Prior to Mark’s recent burst of activity, he’s always kept busy, succeeding in virtually every cul-du-sac of show business. Three months after his UCLA graduation, Mark became the All-Time Champion on NBC’s “Sale of the Century,” winning over $115,000 and jump-starting his comedy career. After founding the Second City’s West Coast Touring Company in Santa Monica, Mark hosted Fox’s hit dating show STUDS for 580 episodes, birthing reality TV – for which he is truly sorry. Juicy roles on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Tracey Takes On, and The Ben Stiller Show kept him in demand between live shows with his improv group, The Frayed Knots! In 2001 Mark starred in the Oscar Nominated “Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius" as befuddled cartoon dad Hugh Neutron, continuing for a decade on the award winning Nickelodeon TV series. Animated stints on Barnyard, Planet Sheen, Johnny Bravo, Handy Manny and the Thumb series of comedies Thumb Wars, BaTThumb and Thumbtanic keep Mark in demand as a cartoon voice actor. After Studs, Mark hosted 3 more hit shows; Fox’s extreme game show Big Deal, and FX’s late night talk show The X Show, before hitting the road from 2005-2009 for the Travel Channel. www.MarkDeCarlo.com

Kiratiana Freelon
Travel Blogger and Author

Who is Kiratiana Freelon? A travel expert, Olympic enthusiast, journalist, speaker, and author. Kiratiana first caught the travel bug as a 20-year-old college student studying abroad in Munich. Her casual weekend trips to places like Florence, Prague and Paris left her with a desire to explore even more of the world. After graduating from Harvard University with a bachelors degree in economics, she was awarded the prestigious John H. Finley fellowship that took her across West Africa, Brazil and Europe. Feeling the need to share her experiences and encourage others to engage in impactful cultural exploration while traveling, she authored her first travel-focused book, aptly entitled,“Kiratiana’s Travel Guide to Black Paris: Get Lost and Get Found.” As a traveller, she has explored more than 25 countries, spanning 5 continents, and has lived in France, Germany, and Brazil. As an author, she has written for Jet magazine, theGrio.com, BlackAtlas.com, Bonjourparis.com. As a journalist, she has covered the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Bejing (2008) and London (2012), as well as the 2011 World Track & FieldChampionships in Daegu, South Korea. As an expert on exploring global culture, she has been featured in many prominent media outlets, including the New York Times, Black Enterprise, the Chicago Defender, NABJ Digital blog, and Black Web 2.0. And, as a speaker, she has presented at South by SouthWest (SXSW), Blogalicious, and Alliance Française of Chicago.

As if not already wearing enough hats, Kiratiana has served as the editor of BlackAtlas.com, a social media travel site sponsored by American Airlines, and maintains her own travel website, KiratianaTravels.com. Kiratiana’s unique approach and perspective is catching the attention of various social media pundits, and just recently, her efforts in travel-focused digital media landed her on Black Enterprise’s list of Top Black People to Follow on Twitter. Of course, ever seeking to expand the resources available to those seeking meaningful cultrual exploration in their travels, Kiratiana’s most recent venture is an ebook, launched in the spirit of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, entitled Kiratiana’s Travel Guide to Multicultural London. Kiratiana’s greatest hope is that this book will provide a platform from which to launch a lifelong love of travel and the type of genuine cultural exploration that enhances understanding among people who share this earth, and ensures a better future for ourselves and the generations that follow.

Pauline Frommer
Travel Writer, Creator of Pauline Frommer Guidebooks

Pauline Frommer is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The Travel Show, which she co-hosts with her father, travel legend Arthur Frommer, is now heard in every state in the nation except Alaska. She also pens an internationally syndicated newspaper column on travel for King Features. Several years ago, the Pauline Frommer guidebooks debuted. The award-winning series encompasses 14 titles, most in their second edition. You may recognize her face as Pauline created weekly travel segments for CNN's Headline News for 3 years. She's also appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, The O'Reilly Factor, NPR's Marketplace and Talk of the Nation, CNN, FOX, MSNBC and every local news station you can name. She was the founding editor of Frommers.com and edited MSNBC.com's travel section for two years. Pauline is the proud mother of two well-traveled daughters and wife to physical therapist Mahlon Stewart.

Judy Hall
CTC, Business Development Manager

Judy has been in the cruise line industry for 29 years. She has been with Holland America Line the past 19 years and traveled to Alaska and the Yukon over 20 times. She has a true passion for Alaska and the Yukon and will be able to answer your questions and help you plan your Alaska Cruise / tour of a lifetime.

Chris Harrison
Host of ABC's The Bachelor

Chris Harrison was there as we watched some of the most shocking moments of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. He gets us into the mindset of each bachelor or bachelorette as he prepares them before every rose ceremony. He asks questions we want to know during the Men/Women Tell All and the After the Final Rose specials. And, quite frankly, we can't imagine The Bachelor or The Bachelorette without him.

Chris Harrison began his television career by covering local sports in Oklahoma City. The Dallas native went to Oklahoma City University on a soccer scholarship and then made the natural transition to sportscasting with a local station. During his six years there, Chris worked his way up the ranks from part-time sportscaster to weekend sportscaster. He also had the opportunity to cover hard news stories, including the 1995 tragedy at the Federal Building, an event which profoundly affected his perspective on life and career.

A visit to L.A. in 1999 for a horseracing network audition led to a permanent move. Later that year, Chris landed the job as host of HGTV's Designer's Challenge consistently one of the network's highest rated shows. In 2001, he became host of ABC's hit romance/reality series The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

Harrison continues to advance in the entertainment industry through a variety of professional endeavors. Most recently he and Dancing with the Stars' Carrie Ann Inaba co-hosted the TV Guide Network's 2009 Emmy Awards' live red carpet coverage, and they will continue in those roles for all of the network's upcoming red carpet awards coverage for the next two years. He also co-hosted ABC's 2008 American Music Awards Red Carpet Live! with Ms. Inaba. He also hosted Road to the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, ABC.com's daily coverage leading up to the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards. He co-hosted E!'s 2006 coverage of the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, and in 2008 made the move to TV Guide Network to not only cover all the major awards shows, but to also host the network's new one-hour weeknight entertainment news show Hollywood 411. In 2004, he hosted the Miss America Pageant for ABC.

The versatile host has done his fair share of acting as well, having garnered roles in the popular television series Alias, The Practice, Six Feet Under and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. His feature film appearances include: Bounce, Showtime and, most recently, portraying himself in the comedy Date Movie.

Jeffrey Hentz
President & CEO, Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau

Jeffrey came to the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau from California in April 2012 and is the President & CEO of the 30 employee organization that is responsible for developing market strategies and developing the all tourism marketing efforts as the destination looks to capitalize on increased global opportunities. With over 24 years of senior travel industry management experience in tourism marketing, sales, advertising, operations and product / destination brand development, Hentz will grow the destination brand and develop multiple sales distribution & marketing partnerships to increase visitation to the Daytona Beach and Volusia County region.

Jeffrey has worked with major tourism industry brands over the years including Yosemite National Park, The Big Red Boat, Walt Disney World, Warner Brothers, United Airlines Vacation Company, Radisson, Marriott, Ocean Development Group, Dolly Parton Entertainment, and Destination development with Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Space Coast Office of Tourism, Cocoa Beach Convention & Visitor Bureau, Bahamas Tourist Bureau, Grand Bahama Island & St. Thomas Virgin Island Tourism, CTO and Greater Ft. Lauderdale.

Jeffrey is already serving on several Visit Florida Committees and was the Marketing Chair for the National Parks and Yosemite Anniversary Celebration, Chairman of the California High Sierra Visitor Council, Board Member of the Gold Country Visitor Association, Co-Chair of the Yosemite Gateway Partners, and Founder of the Mariposa Vision 2020 Economic Development group. Jeff is also very active with key Industry organizations including US Travel Assoc., DMAI, WACVB, CALSAE, MPI, Brand USA and Visit Florida.

The Daytona Beach Convention & Visitor Bureau is the branding, sales and marketing agency responsible for positioning the DESTINATION as the primary choice for leisure, business and group travel for the economic benefit of the region.

Colleen Kelly
Host and Executive Producer, Family Travel with Colleen Kelly

Colleen currently serves as Host and Travel Guide for Family Travel with Colleen Kelly, a national show launching in July 2013 on highly-acclaimed public television. After traveling extensively with her own family, Colleen saw the distinct need and broad appeal for a show dedicated to making family travel easier. Engaging viewers from the start with her upbeat, high-energy approach, Colleen explores must-see locations and attractions throughout the U.S. and abroad, sharing expert travel tips and insights to create easier family vacations filled with once-in-a-lifetime memories. Family Travel with Colleen Kelly is filmed and produced by Travel Film Produc-tions, LLC - a television production company co-founded by Colleen and fellow Executive Producer and President, Tricia Fusilero.

Linda Kissam
Culinary and Wine Expert

Linda Kissam is a professional food, wine and travel writer based out of Southern California specializing in easy - breezy stories sharing her favorite things about the places she visits. As she sips with the winemaker, dines with the chef, or shops with the gift concierge, she dishes out insights on the fabulous, the famous, and the unforgettable. Whether riding the rails in Europe, reviewing an extraordinary wine, or being pampered at a luxurious spa, she's investigating the local culinary buzz to provide her readers with tips on what to buy and what to try. Linda’ latest book, A Recipe for Temecula Wine Country, celebrates the wines and foods of the Temecula Valley Wine Region.

Tim Matthews
Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership

Tim Matthews grew up in a small coal mining village in Yorkshire, England. While attending school, he worked weekends peeling vegetables at Monk Fryston Hall, a small hotel nestled in the countryside. This early exposure to kitchen life developed into a passion for cooking.

Tim took his apprenticeship and attended Thomas Danby College in Leeds in the north of England. At the age of 18, Tim had his chef’s papers and landed a job working for Silvano Trompetto at the prestigious Savoy Hotel in London. After 2 years working with the 120 chefs and 4 departments of the Savoy kitchen, he got the opportunity to work in the pastry shop at the hotel Kempiniski in Berlin. He entered a pulled sugar display in the Berlin Culinary Salon in 1978 and won his first gold medal. After one year, Tim took a chef du partie position at the Loews Hotel in the south of France and a junior sous chef position at the Sheraton Hotel in Stockholm Sweden.

Tim came to Thunder Bay in 1980 and worked at the Airlane Hotel as a dining room chef and with C.P Hotels as executive chef. In 1986, he joined the hospitality team at Confederation College and coordinated the Culinary Management Program.

In addition to earning his Chef’s papers in England and Canada, he is a graduate of Confederation College’s Culinary and Hotel Management Programs, chef of the year in 1991 (Association of Chefs De Cuisine) and received a recognition award for outstanding service in 1996 from Confederation College.

In May 2001, Tim was awarded the NISOD Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Texas and Confederation College’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. He also has a degree in Business Administration from Athabasca University.

Tim has written over 200 articles on food preparation and cooking. In his career, he has won 13 gold medals and a number of challenge trophies for his food exhibits in Germany, Ireland, the United States and Canada.

Chef Dudley Nieto
Mexico Tourism Board

Dudley Nieto grew up in Puebla, Mexico. His father – who grew up in Spain – was a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen, which provided Nieto a “strong sense of pride, knowing men could be great cooks.” At 21 years old, Nieto intended to study medicine but decided to pursue culinary school instead. After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu, Nieto brought his Mexican palate and classic French technique to kitchens in the Chicago area. He’s opened countless restaurants, from Adobo Grill and Chapuline in Chicago to Bar Taco, Rosa Mexicano-Lincoln Center and Dos Caminos Park Avenue in New York City, finally returning home to the Midwest last year where under his guidance, new eatery Mezcalina has recently earned the distinction of being named one of 23 “Authentic Mexican Restaurants” by the Mexican government.

“As you know, Mexican cuisine has been designated World Heritage by UNESCO and it hasn’t become popular by accident. It’s all about giving diners great food with excellent flavors. It’s a cuisine that’s quickly becoming more mainstream, but we can continue to make it grow by staying true to our roots. For the foodies that have had street tacos in Mexico, I want to deliver a taco that’s even better. For first-time diners, I want to provide an experience they’ll never forget. That’s my challenge: to put authentic yet contemporary food at the table.”

Cynthia O’Kelley
Sales Manager, Insight Vacations

Cynthia O’Kelley is a veteran travel professional that began in the industry working for airlines in Denver and lodging at the Vail Ski Resort . After moving back to the Midwest and working for a worldwide hotel company, the love of international travel began and she found herself at home at Insight Vacations. She has represented their fine tour product for over 20 years. “Insight has an authentic guest experience philosophy and I enjoy traveling with them on my own family vacations! I enjoy sharing my love of travel with others- I like to show them how easy it is to make their dreams actually happen.” Cynthia resides in the Chicago suburbs with her family.

Michelle Payette
Funjet Vacations

Eve Reid
Midwest Sales Manager, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection

Eve Reid is the Midwest Sales Manager at Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection. Since graduating from the University of Miami Eve had been associated with ocean cruise companies. Now, for almost 15 years, she has enjoyed working in the Midwest introducing the delights of river cruising with Uniworld throughout Europe as well as Asia. She says that the perfect Uniworld guest is someone, who like her, has graduated up from ocean cruises to river cruising. Eve enjoys her personal travels and most recently has visited the South of France, Hungary, Austria and Bavaria as well as Russia then Cambodia and Vietnam plus summer vacations on Cape Cod.

Chef Matt Riordan 

Chef Riordan is a Chicago native and executive chef at the Saigon Sisters, a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, located at 567 W. Lake Street. Chef Riodan brings extensive executive experience to his role, most recently, as the Executive Chef of Pops for Champagne. His love for Asian flavors as well as interesting ideas has helped to elevate traditional Vietnamese street food favorites.

Saul Ruiz
Marketing, Costa Rica Tourism Board

Patricia Schultz
Author, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die

Patricia Schultz has a dream job: traveling the globe and writing about it. She is the author of the international #1 bestsellers, 1,000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE (with over 3 million copies in print and translated into 25 languages) and 1,000 PLACES TO SEE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA BEFORE YOU DIE. With these works, she has reinvented the idea of travel book as both wish list and practical guide. She was chosen by Forbes as one of the 25 most influential women in travel, and was executive producer of the Travel Channel’s TV show based on her first 1,000 PLACES book.

The second edition of 1,000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE came out in November 2011, with 200 entirely new destinations, 28 new countries, full-color photographs, and more than 50 percent new material woven into the revised and expanded entries, which emphasize comprehensive travel experiences instead of single sites.

Family legend, never proven, is that Patricia’s family is somehow related to Mark Twain, who was a preeminent globetrotter of his day. Patricia’s own wanderlust began on the beach at Atlantic City, when she set off from the family beach blanket seeking adventure and was returned to an apoplectic mother several hours later by some relieved lifeguards. “I had heard the siren call of the great, global beyond,” she recalls, “and I had answered. I was hooked. I was four years old.”

While her college classmates headed for Wall Street, Patricia grabbed her passport and made a beeline for the airport, and soon discovered that she could make a living from her passion. Many guidebooks and articles later, she embarked upon the first 1,000 PLACES book, spending seven years augmenting the knowledge she gained from her own travels with information from hundreds of books and magazines and first-person reports from colleagues, tourist agencies, and individual travelers. How did she winnow it all down? “The common denominator I chose was a simple one: that each place impress upon the visitor some sense of the earth’s magic, integrity, wonder, and legacy. And sometimes places that were just plain fun.”

Patricia Schultz has written about travel for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Everyday with Rachael Ray, and Travel Weekly, and for guides such as Frommer’s and Berlitz. She is a popular speaker at travel shows, museums, associations, and organizations both in the U.S. and abroad. In more than 25 years of travel writing, she has never lost her curiosity or passion. “Some people can speed from New York to L. A. without registering a thing,” she writes. “I can walk around my mid-Manhattan block and come home with a carton of milk and stories to tell. In the end, the number of miles covered has nothing to do with the real pleasures of travel–the inherent beauty of the world and the discovery it promises are all around us.”

Rick Steves
Travel Writer, Host of Rick Steves Europe and Travel with Rick Steves, Europe Through the Back Door

Rick Steves grew up in Edmonds, Washington and studied at the University of Washington where he received degrees in Business Administration and European History. But his real education came in Europe — since 1973 he's spent 120 days a year in Europe. Spending one third of his adult life living out of a suitcase in Europe has shaped his thinking. Today he employs 80 people at his Europe Through the Back Door headquarters where he produces over 50 guidebooks on European travel, the most popular travel series in America on public television, a weekly hour-long national public radio show, and a weekly column syndicated by the Chicago Tribune. Rick Steves lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington. His office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Ralph Velasco
Author, Ralph Velasco on Travel Photography: 101 Tips for Developing Your Photographic Eye & More

Southern California-based travel photography instructor Ralph Velasco is author of “Ralph Velasco On Travel Photography: 101 Tips for Developing Your Photographic Eye & More.” Ralph guides photo tours around the world, including to Egypt, Mexico, Spain, Central Europe and other locations. He’s also creator of the photography app My Shot Lists for Travel (MyShotLists.com), which helps people of all skill levels to bring back a more interesting set of images from their travels. Additionally, his blog, which can be found at RalphVelasco.com, was selected one of “The 11 Best New Travel Blogs of 2011” by National Geographic Traveler columnist Christopher Elliott and one of the “Best Travel Blogs of 2012” by Washington Flyer. Mr. Velasco was named “Open Photographer of the Year” two years in a row by the Professional Photographers of Orange County.