Meet the Bloggers

Malia Everette

Since 1997, Malía Everette has been the Director of Global Exchange's popular and rapidly expanding Reality Tours program. During her tenure at Global Exchange's Reality Tours she has overseen the growth and development of alternative travel programs, study seminars and fact finding human rights delegations to 40 destinations around the world. 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. She has years of experience pioneering cultural and educational exchanges that truly build "people to people ties". Malía believes in the power of travel as a transformative tool for education and social change and sees how the Reality Tours alumni pool of over 20,000 have become citizen diplomats as well as proponents for sane US foreign and economic policy. Malía has facilitated many 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 trends in socially responsible travel and has been a speaker on behalf of Global Exchange's programs and especially on US international relations with Cuba. Most recently Malia was contributing writer for THE BLUE PAGES 2nd Edition: A Directory of Companies Rated by Their Politics and Practices! 2009. Malía is involved with many local environmental and human rights groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a cofounder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance in Richmond, California and currently serves on the boards of the Institute of Agriculture and Food Policy (Food First), the Ethical Traveler, and the Women’s Earth Alliance. Over the past two years, she has dedicated herself to building transformational advocacy delegations for Not For Sale on the issue of human trafficking. Additionally, Malía is a consultant on socially responsible business practices for the travel industry and is the proud mother of two intrepid and well traveled sons!

Pamela Montanaro

Pamela Montanaro, M.S., coordinated the nation-wide "Freedom to Travel to Cuba" Campaign for six years, on behalf of Global Exchange and a network of fifty other U.S. civil liberties, human rights, humanitarian, academic, environmental, and solidarity organizations. Ms. Montanaro has twenty years of experience in Latin America solidarity movements, working first in New England for Clergy and Laity Concerned, and then on the West Coast for Global Exchange. She is the co-founder of Eco Cuba Exchange, promoting interchange between U.S. and Cuban environmental scientists, policy makers and activists. Pamela writes about the extraordinary struggles and successes of Cuba's environmental scientists in Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development and how U.S. environmentalists can support and learn from them. She posts updates, as well, on the issue of travel to Cuba, the only country in the world to which the majority of U.S. citizens are denied their constitutional right to travel.

Carol Steele

Carol Steele is the Global Exchange Director of Cuba Customized Reality Tours. She is a world-renowned percussionist whose résumé reads like a who’s who of popular music. In 1974 she was brought to New York from her native San Francisco as a featured artist in Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaría’s band. She then went on to play with master tres player Nelson González and his band during the 1970s salsa boom. Landing a gig in Las Vegas with Diana Ross in 1978, Carol began her career in popular music. Over the last 30 years, artists ranging from Peter Gabriel to Steve Winwood, Joan Baez, Annie Lenox, Vanessa Williams, Tears for Fears, Dar Williams, and Bette Midler, to name only a few, have continually sought Carol out for tours and recordings. In 1987, Carol made her first trip to Cuba, a journey that she will always say changed her life completely. Over the past 23 years she has continued going to Cuba to study and play as often as possible. Carol was the first American woman to play with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, one of Cuba’s most venerable professional folkloric groups. She has also had the honor of playing and singing on tour in the U.S. with Lázaro Ros and Amelia Pedroso, two of Cuba’s top Afro-Cuban folkloric singers. Carol’s love of Cuban music and culture has been a great advantage in playing popular music. Her studies and gigs playing with Cuban and Cuban-influenced artists have provided her with a treasure trove of rhythms to draw on; the genius and “flavor” of Cuban music infuse many of her recordings and live performances. Carol is currently working on a One Woman Show, entitled “My Daughter, the Bongo Beater”, to share her many escapades with the rest of the world!

Leslie Balog

Leslie Balog has lived the past 20 years in Cuba and worked at the island's international radio station. She has been arranging Cuba tours for Global Exchange since l993. She has also worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as an immigration and tenant's rights attorney.

Admin

When you see the blog author "Admin" listed who (or what) do you picture? In case you're wondering, Admin refers to our communications team. Usually blog posts written by "Admin" mean that the post was a group effort, a collaboration, if you will. Consider the mystery solved! And if you'd like to contact the elusive Admin bloggers, email communications(at)globalexchange.org.

Alessandro I.

Alessandro is the Reality Tours Director.

Tex Dworkin

Tex Dworkin Director of Social Media Tex Dworkin is Director of Social Media for Global Exchange, an international human rights organization and Founder of DoGoodBiz.com, an online destination for fans of socially responsible business. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Thought and Political Economy from UMass in Amherst, and over 15 years of buying, marketing, and business development experience. Tex has traveled to many parts of the world on direct buying trips, delegations, and educational speaking tours, meeting with artisans and students, vendors and producers. Tex is passionate about helping and encouraging those involved in socially responsible business to achieve success. Her work in Fair Trade, e-commerce, and cause-based marketing continues to inspire her to work on expanding the socially responsible business movement. In addition to her work with Global Exchange, Tex is a Business Consultant and Co-founder of DoGoodBiz.com, a blog for fans of socially responsible business.

Zarah Patriana

Zarah Patriana has worked as the Operations Manager of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store and currently works as Global Exchange's Web Content Manager. She has been a Fair Trade advocate for several years and in the past has written about Fair Trade for Change.org and the Fair Trade Resource Network. On occasion, you can spot her around town dressed up as a Fair Trade Certified banana, you know, just because.

Corina Nolet

Corina Nolet is a Seattle, Washington native who began her journey at Global Exchange in 2007. She is currently the Latin America Program Director for Reality Tours where she organizes public education delegations throughout the Americas. Underscoring issues of human rights and social justice, Corina manages programs in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. In her downtime, Corina enjoys road trips to the Redwoods, cooking vegetarian food, gardening and playing in the sun.