Purposeful Travel Summit

Casey is the founder and owner of Casey Hanisko LLC, which focuses on leadership and business coaching and adventure travel marketing and sustainability consulting. She is the former president of the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) and has been an executive in the travel industry for over twenty years.

While at Zegrahm Expeditions, an international multi-day tour business conducting global land and sea expeditions, she marketed countless new innovative travel itineraries from space voyages and deep sea submersible trips to in depth expeditions to countries such as Brazil, Japan, and Namibia. A creative and results driven executive, Casey’s roles have included business strategy and development, marketing, communications, branding, and innovative product development.

Casey is trained in Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead, Moe Carrick’s Leading People Program (LPP), Mindsetting for Well-Being and Performance, and Sendatsu Leadership & Yoga Teacher Training. When she isn’t traveling, working or spending time with her family, you can find her walking her two dogs, Puck and Oscar, or reading, writing, running, doing yoga, or paddleboarding.
 
 

Martha Honey, Ph.D., is CEO of Responsible Travel Consulting based in Rhinebeck, New York. She is also Director Emeritus and was co-founder and Executive Director (2003- 2019) of the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), headquartered in Washington, DC.

Martha brings three decades years of sustainable tourism experience in leading field projects; directing teams of experts; conducting research; writing and publishing studies, articles, and books; public speaking and university lecturing; organizing conferences, symposiums, and think tanks; leading training workshops; and curating and leading international and domestic ecotourism trips. Martha has written and lectured widely on responsible and sustainable travel, including on ecotourism, climate change, overtourism, Travelers’ Philanthropy/Impact travel, cruise and resort tourism, coastal and marine tourism, and certification issues. Her books include 0vertourism: Lessons for a Better Future (Island Press, 2021); Caribbean Cruise Tourism: Selling Sunshine (Routledge Press, 2019); Coastal Tourism, Sustainability, and Climate Change in the Caribbean, Vol. 1 & 2 (Business Expert Press, 2017),  Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? (Island Press, 1999 and 2008), and Ecotourism and Certification: Setting Standards in Practice (Island Press, 2002). She was Executive Producer of CREST’s documentary films, Caribbean ‘Green’ Travel: Your Choices Make a Difference, (2016). Cracking the Golden Egg: Coastal Tourism in Costa Rica (2013), and Travelers’ Philanthropy: Giving Time, Talent, and Treasure (2010).

Martha has worked on sustainable tourism projects in countries around the world. In 2019, Martha was awarded CREST’s first annual Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to responsible tourism.
Previously, Martha worked for 20 years as a journalist based in East Africa and Central America. She holds a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and a MA in African American history from Syracuse University.

Alex  has been operating in destination day experiences using AI since mid-2020, pushing the boundaries of what  technology can deliver for consumers. Before he was an AI tour operator, he founded and scaled TourCMS, the first SaaS reztech platform for local tour operators to handle bookings and distribute via online travel agencies. He believes that AI is inevitable but has to be incorporated into consumer experiences in such a way that local communities benefit. He believes we cannot use AI to further centralize the travel industry.

JoAnna Haugen is an award-winning writer, consultant, speaker, and solutions advocate who has worked in communications-related positions in the travel and tourism industry her entire career.

 She is also founder of Rooted, a solutions platform at the intersection of sustainable tourism, social impact, and storytelling. Through Rooted, JoAnna helps tourism professionals decolonize travel experiences and support sustainability using strategic storytelling.

 In 2021, Newsweek named JoAnna a winner in the storytelling category of its Future of Tourism awards. She’s also been nominated for three Bessie Awards: Collaboration of the Year in 2021 and Most Impactful Piece of Writing in 2021 and 2022, and was recognized as a finalist for Trade Publication Feature of the Year by Inspire Global Media Awards in 2023. Additionally, she is a two-time grant recipient from the Nevada Arts Council.

 An international election observer and intrepid traveler, JoAnna currently resides in Carthage, Tunisia. 
 

Geerte Udo is known as being a decisive connector with vision and a creative spirit.  amsterdam&partners focusses on one mayor goal: to ensure that the Amsterdam Area remains liveable and prosperous for residents, conventions, business and visitors. 

The company uses data, new technologies and storytelling to build a sustainable reputation of Amsterdam Area. And they guide residents, companies, conferences and visitors to familiar and less familiar places and contributes to reducing nuisance. Udo looks not only at the issues of today, but also those of tomorrow. How do we build a place known for its open and diverse culture, where people respect each other and the environment. Udo is a born networker, visionary and connector and a source of inspiration. Creating connections between partners in government, businesses, knowledge institutions, cultural organizations and residents makes it possible to take up challenges and seize opportunities. 

Geerte studied Public Administration at Leiden University. After her career as consultant, she moved in 2006 to Amsterdam Partners, in 2013 she joined the management and became CEO in march 2019. Udo discovered her love for art, culture, and good food at an early age. She has lived in Amsterdam for more than 20 years. 

Maria Hansen is Executive Director of ELIA, a leading European network of art universities, globally connected and dedicated to offering a dynamic platform for exchange and development of its almost 300 members.

Born and raised in Germany, Maria worked in the performing arts for more than 30 years. She was Executive Director of Ottawa’s opera company before moving to the Netherlands in 1995.  Maria managed the Netherlands Bach Society, a baroque ensemble she toured internationally. In 2007, she became Managing Director of the Municipal Theater and Concert Hall in Haarlem. In 2017, she made the move to ELIA and the international field of arts education. Throughout her career she has served on the boards of many organisations, including the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, youth music ensemble Oorkaan and vocal ensemble Frommermann.

A passion of Maria’s is developing an ecologically responsible business model for the cultural field.  As managing director of the Theatre and Concert Hall in Haarlem, she was a driving force in achieving green certification for nine local cultural organisations in that city. Maria now has a leading role in the establishment of eco-certification for European cultural networks. In her spare time, Maria loves bootcamp exercise in the dunes nearby her home in Haarlem (Netherlands), welcoming old and new friends for dinner at her long table and practicing meditation.

Kathi Irvine, Co-Founder, of Watershed Organizational Development Group Inc., has worked with organizations in the public and private sectors for decades, and of late is spending much of her time in the not-for-profit sectors supporting the development of strategy, stakeholder engagement and effective board governance. With over 25 years of leadership and training experience, she shares extensive knowledge of change leadership, knowledge transfer, strategic planning, and employee engagement. Kathi firmly believes that the only way organizations can truly transform is through engaging employees and the communities they serve — her skill in creating space for conversations that matter has been the cornerstone of her work.

 She is a strong supporter of community engagement and is currently the vice chair of artsPlace Board of Directors in Canmore and a board member of the Banff Canmore Community Foundation.

Geoff Powter is an organizational development and leadership consultant, and one of the co-founders of the Watershed Organizational Development Group, based in Canmore, AB. Geoff has been faculty with Leadership Development at Banff Centre for the past 30 years, and served a member of the Board of Directors of Travel Alberta from 2016-2020.
Geoff trained as a clinical psychologist, and early in his career found an opportunity to blend his interest in the human mind with his passion for mountain adventure.

Geoff has been an avid climber for more than four decades, and has climbed all over the globe, including 13 expeditions to the Himalaya. He was the editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal for 13 years, and has written two award-winning books — Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness (which won the Jury Prize at the 2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival), and Inner Ranges (which won the Mountain Literature Prize in Banff, won the National Outdoor Book Award in the US, and was shortlisted for the Boardman-Tasker Award for Mountain Literature). He has written extensively about adventure travel, including regular pieces for The Globe and Mail.

In 2012, Geoff received the prestigious Summit of Excellence Award for lifetime contribution to Canadian mountain culture.