Reality Tours

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic, and environmentsl justice around the world.

Author's Spotlight: Malia Everette

Website:

http://www.globalexchange.org

Profile:

From 1997-2012, Malía Everette was the Director of Global Exchange's popular and rapidly expanding Reality Tours program. During her tenure at Reality Tours she has overseen the growth and development of alternative travel programs, study seminars and fact finding human rights delegations to over 45 global destinations. From the US, to Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean, Malía promotes in-depth experiential education and socially responsible travel as an alternative to the type of "sun and fun" tourism that often results in cultural homogenization and does little to benefit local communities and host economies. She has years of experience pioneering cultural and educational exchanges for other organizations, foundations, educational institutions, and families. Malía believes in the power of travel as a transformative tool for education and social change and sees how travelers have become citizen diplomats. Malía facilitates tours around the world focusing on international relations, human rights, political economy, sustainable development, women's issues and the resilience of indigenous cultures. Malía Everette has a Bachelors of Art in English Literature and a Masters of Arts in International Relations. She has written numerous articles about socially responsible travel and is a regular speaker and lecturer. Most recently she was a contributor to the The Blue Pages: A Directory of Companies Rated by Their Politics and Practices (2010) and the UNWTO’s “Religious Tourism in Asia and the Pacific” (2011). Malía is involved with many local environmental and human rights groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. She serves on the boards of the Institute of Agriculture and Food Policy (Food First), the Ethical Traveler, THRIVE-Gulu, the Respect Institute and Bay Area Green Tours. Over the past few years she has spent a lot of time supporting and building transformational advocacy delegations with organizations like the Women’s Earth Alliance and anti-human trafficking groups, like Not For Sale, ECPAT and MISSSEY. Malía also works as a consultant for established and emerging tourism companies. In 2013 joined the staff of SFSU in their Tourism and Recreation Management faculty and launched her next project Altruvistas, a business and foundation to promote transformation philanthropy in the travel industry. Perhaps most importantly, Malía is the proud mother of two intrepid, curious and very well traveled sons.