Meet the Team

Ross Borden is one of the founding members of Matador. He has lived in Spain, Kenya, and Argentina and currently resides in his native San Francisco.

Ben Polansky is one of the founding members of Matador. He has lived in Spain, traveled in Asia and Africa, taught in Central America, and trekked and surfed his way through South America. He lives in San Francisco, where he manages a youth leadership program and travels vicariously through the Matador community.

Preston Clarke is the COO of Matador and our resident MBA… but we forgive him. He is also a world traveler. Preston has lived and worked in London and the Caribbean; and went to university in Spain before finishing in Massachusetts (and then Arizona for graduate school). When he is not analyzing everything Matador does, he enjoys playing tennis.

Stefan Klopp is the CTO of Matador and all around tech ninja. He keeps the Matador turtles at bay, all the while developing the latest features for the site. Stefan is a craftsman at heart with a passion for travel, and a photographic eye. He has been known to bake a mean cake, and brew a tasty beer.

Ian MacKenzie is the founder of Brave New Traveler. He now heads Matador Productions, our original content production house. Aside from writing, designing, and filmmaking, he spends his time exploring the fundamental nature of existence.

Joshua Johnson is a soggy Seattle based adventurer with a penchant for misty mountains and black coffee. He wishes to extend greetings and goodwill to all life in the cosmos and invites everyone out for some sushi. With his super heroine wife, Bridget O’Neill, he founded Confluence Creative Media in 2007 and is well on his way to taking over the world.

Eric Warren is a writer, photographer, and enterprising filmmaker with an unhealthy love for all types of transportation. His work appears in a variety of publications, including many in the cycling world. Currently based in Portland, Maine, he is currently developing a TV show about building a brewery and “road-tripping” around the country in search of techniques developed by the best brewers.

David Miller is senior editor of Matador (winner of a 2010 Lowell Thomas award for travel journalism) and BETA magazine. A writer in multiple genres, he was a contributing author to Fodor’s Patagonia (Random House, 2009), and has both fiction and poetry anthologized in the Hint Fiction Anthology (W.W. Norton, 2010) and forthcoming in Before We Have Nowhere to Stand (Lost Horse, 2011). Before assuming editorship at Matador he worked as a staff writer for the Boulder Weekly. He lives with his wife and two young children in Patagonia, Argentina. Follow him @dahveed_miller.

Julie Schwietert Collazo is Matador’s managing editor and lead faculty member of MatadorU’s travel writing program. In addition to her work with Matador, Julie is a freelance writer for various publications. Her work has been published in DISCOVER, Latina, and the in-flight magazines of Singapore Airlines and Martinair. She is a contributing writer to the guide books Fodor’s Puerto Rico and Fodor’s Caribbean, as well as The Voluntary Traveler. She is also the author of the iPhone/iPad travel app, San Juan Insider. She maintains a blog with her husband, and a blog about writing and editing.

Carlo lives in Nelson, BC where he ponders big life questions, tends to his garden, and enjoys fresh mountain air. His work has appeared on CNN Travel and in Asian Traveler and Creative Culture magazines. He is a co-founder of Confronting Love and blogs at Vagabonderz.

Lola Akinmade edits Matador Goods and is a MatadorU instructor. She’s a writer and photographer whose publication credits include National Geographic Traveler, BBC, Vogue, Fodors.com, Forbes Traveler, Sherman’s Travel, Travel Channel’s World Hum, AFAR, and many more. Her travel photography has received numerous accolades. She contributes as a photojournalist to various NGOs such as the International Red Cross. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Hal Amen is experimenting in root growing in Austin, Texas. He feels a little weird living only 80 miles from where he was born, and so has decided to keep traveling as often as possible. Editing Matador Trips is another great excuse to spend copious amounts of time on the road. His personal blog is at WayWorded.

Kristin Conard is an editor at Nights and a writing instructor in New Jersey by way of Kansas, New Mexico, and England. As a child, she wanted to be a librarian, because she thought that the librarian was the one who got to write all the books in the library. Her obsession with reading and writing has continued, and when she is not grading papers and lesson planning, she is working on a collection of essays and planning her next trip. Read more about her trips and her random thoughts at kristin5683.wordpress.com

Juliane Huang writes, edits, formats, coordinates, updates, researches, registers, calls, and schedules for Matador. Armed with a strong cup of coffee and a clear wi-fi connection, Juliane gets the things done that need to get done for Mother Matador. Her personal blog is here.

Sarah Menkedick, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the managing editor of Glimpse.org. Her writing has appeared in print and online publications, including Literary Traveler, Abroad View magazine, and National Geographic Glimpse. She has traveled, lived, and taught on five continents, and is constantly in pursuit of spicy food, dark beer, and new places to run. Keep up with her on her blog.

Abbie Mood is a freelance writer and preschool special ed teacher who spends her vacations experiencing as much of the world as possible. Check out her blog at AbbieMood.com.

A 5-language speaking multicultural guy, Daniel Nahabedian left behind his cubicle in 2009 to start a long journey and follow his true passion: Photography. After a year of travel, he is currently settled in Chiang Mai, north of Thailand to work on his travel photo website Canvas of Light, become a full time freelance travel photographer and spend his days planning his next meal.

Candice Walsh is a technical writer turned freelancer and social media account manager currently stationed in St. John’s, Newfoundland. When she isn’t writing for the web, she’s shooting whiskey and hitting on men, or eating nachos and dreaming about travel. Check out her blog, Candice Does The World.

Kate Sedgwick edits Matador Nights from Buenos Aires, where she teaches English, learns Spanish, and thoroughly enjoys herself. Her art and writing have appeared in print and online publications and her novel in progress will be received with prurient glee by critics of American culture if it ever gets into their grubby little hands. Learn more about her than you ever wanted to know at her blog YesThereIsSuchAThingAsAStupidQuestion.com.

Nick Rowlands has lived in Egypt since 2006, and worked as a tour leader, an English teacher, and editor of a Cairo city guide. He’s a lapsed juggler and intermittent yoga practitioner, and isn’t so good at poker as he likes to think. You can follow his sun-crazed hallucinations on his blog, Delicious Chaos.

Benita Hussain is the Editor of Matador Sports. With a bachelors from Cornell University, she is a Brooklyn, New York-based freelance writer and journalist specializing in outdoor adventure, surf, travel and environmental topics. She is also a part-time lawyer and yoga teacher and is exhausted most of time. Check out more about her on her travel blog (http://thehussainitydefense.blogspot.com) and yoga website (http://benitasana.com).

Michelle Schusterman is a freelance writer, steel pannist, city trekker, amateur foodie, and wannabe Iron Chef. After living abroad in Salvador and Seoul, her love of alliteration brought her to Seattle, where she currently resides with her husband and chocolate lab. Michelle is addicted to coffee and loves trying new food; the spicier, the better.

Jason Wire split his younger years between Indiana and New York before heading to Nashville for college at Vanderbilt University. After graduating he spent a year teaching English in La Línea de la Concepción on the border of Spain and Gibraltar while traveling as much as possible. He’s back in the States now, but doesn’t really know where.

David Page has run sled dogs into the Maroon Bells, seined for salmon off the Kenai, and traveled from the Algerian Sahara to Paris in the back of a Belgian floral delivery van. He has written for the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Men’s Journal, and The New York Times. He lives on the edge of one of the largest calderas on earth, on the backside of Yosemite, with his wife, his two boys, and an illegal migrant canine representative of the Aztec god Xolotl.

Eileen Smith is from Brooklyn, New York and currently lives, breathes, and works in Santiago, Chile where she cycles, writes, edits, translates and photographs anything that will stand still, or not. She travels when she can and admits to frequent overpacking and other quirks on her blog, bearshapedsphere.

Paul Sullivan is a freelance writer, author and photographer covering music, travel and culture. His work has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, Intelligent Life, National Geographic Music and more, and he has written/photographed several guidebooks for Time Out, HG2, Cool Camping and others. He currently lives in Berlin, where he runs the Slow Travel Berlin website, flirts with history and fiction, and continuously tells jokes no one gets.

Andy is based in Seattle, Washington. When he’s not hanging out with the Twitterati or lining up ammunition for the Matador Twitter account, he’s helping small businesses in travel and tourism understand blogging and social media. He also writes for travel blogs and magazines, including his own, Sharing Travel Experiences.

Morgan deBoer works for a non-profit in San Diego, where she also writes, hikes, paints, and watches a lot of “I Love Lucy.” She writes restaurant reviews for URBANISTguide.com.

Lindsay Clark has spent the last three years circumnavigating the world three times, hoping to learn constantly by throwing herself into difficult and thrilling situations. She likes to dance, gives herself high fives, and thinks education is pretty darn important. She’s a freelance filmmaker, photographer, and writer based in New York City. Follow her blog at http://nomadderwhere.com

To satisfy her curiosity for the world, Lindi Horton took a job in corporate America. This job allows her to spend time learning and growing but also mixing business with pleasure. It’s allowed her to move to the UK as an expat, dive with sharks in South Africa, and drop kick her in the middle of Singapore with just her laptop and a passport. She’s currently working as an intern with Matador Sports, improving her writing through athletic adventures and sometimes mishaps.

Anne Merritt has lived in Canada, Europe, and Asia, where she teaches ESL and writes. She is a self-described haggler, hiker, food adventurer, and sunscreen fanatic. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, GoOverseas.com, and The Compass. She is currently living in South Korea and interning at Matador Life.

Sarah Park is currently spending her quarter-life crisis shuffling between the endless sunshine of San Diego and the incredibly long winters of the Eastern Sierra. She lives and works in Mammoth Lakes, against the beautiful backdrop of trees, mountains, and grungy snowboarders who smell. When not out snowboarding, Sarah occupies her time hiking with her boyfriend and their dog, making disastrous mistakes in the kitchen, and trying to decide where they should live next. Read about her latest exploits on her blog, which she occasionally remembers to update.

Matt Scott has spent the majority of his adult life traveling and working abroad. His writing and photos have appeared in publications around the world, both online and in print. Originally from the UK, Matt now lives in Paris, where he works as a tour guide and trip leader for an active travel company. His blog is The World Is Too Big.

Richard Stupart lives and works in South Africa, exploring as often as possible the strange and unknown places that his continent is so rich in. What stories of far flung places and mischief he is able to trap and bring home are stuffed and mounted on his blog at www.wheretheroadgoes.com.