Program Manager, Climate & Resilience

A lover of oceans and mountains with a positive outlook on life, Ivory has a passion for preserving the environments and cultures of the iconic island destinations that we love. Ivory’s background includes tourism consulting and non-profit fundraising, event planning, member and donor relations, and environmental audits.

Ivory got her first experience in the travel industry at a membership organization, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in Bangkok. Her role at PATA focused on sustainability and social responsibility, where she worked on impactful projects like environmental audits, a community-based tourism workshop, and a plastics toolkit. 

Prior to joining Sustainable Travel International, Ivory worked as a sustainable tourism consultant in Palau for the Palau Visitors Authority, the Palau Chamber of Commerce, and the Bureau of Tourism. Besides working on COVID-related projects for Palau’s tourism industry, Ivory also worked with us and the Bureau of Tourism on a project to make Palau a carbon neutral tourism destination.

During her undergrad years, Ivory spent time in Rwanda, visiting refugee camps and interviewing youth in order to fundraise money to sponsor the education of several hundred of the students through her university’s global service program. She returned to Rwanda several times to assist in a vocational training school program, where she helped with permaculture classes and taught guitar.

This experience taught her about the complexities of poverty alleviation and how to positively impact someone’s life. Her drive for helping others and love of the environment, led her to further her studies and learn about how tourism could be used as a tool for sustainable development. Coming from the islands of Palau, Ivory saw the impacts of both climate change and tourism on people and the environment. She wrote her dissertation on the land and tourism nexus in Palau. She believes that tourism done right can be a tool for sustainable development, with the potential to create livelihoods, celebrate cultural heritage and conserve life on our planet. 

Ivory brings her excitement and knowledge into managing Sustainable Travel International’s climate and resilience program, helping businesses and destinations measure, reduce, and offset their carbon footprint. Ivory holds a BA in International Communications from Walla Walla University and a MSc in Tourism, Environment and Development from King’s College London.

Connect with Ivory on LinkedIn.

Senior Manager, Communications & Training

A creative-minded optimist, Kaitlyn possesses a particular passion for using storytelling and visual communications to inspire meaningful change. Kaitlyn’s background includes a range tourism and nonprofit marketing experience, including strategy planning, content development, digital marketing, fundraising and graphic design.

As CEO, Paloma leads the organization’s global efforts to maximize tourism’s contribution to conservation and development in order to protect destinations, preserve natural environments, and improve community well-being. With over 15 years of experience in sustainable tourism and economic development, Paloma has designed and implemented impactful initiatives and projects in 25 nations across the globe. Her work has ranged from addressing the shortcomings of the current tourism supply to deriving sustainable development strategies and formulating policies. Some of her achievements include contributing to the creation of sustainable tourism master plans for Belize, Bermuda, Colombia and Panama, as well as developing a plan to link disenfranchised communities in Cambodia’s Siam Reap region to the tourism value chain.

Paloma joined Sustainable Travel International in 2015 and previously served as Vice President. Prior to joining Sustainable Travel International, she served as a Senior Consultant for Tourism & Leisure consulting, leading numerous transformative tourism development projects around the world. Earlier in her career she worked for IBM’s microelectronics division as Staff Industrial Engineer and registered three patents.

Paloma holds a master’s in business administration and a postgraduate degree in tourism management from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. She is a native speaker of Spanish and English.

Vice President, Operations

The daughter of active duty marines, Neota Webb knows how to pack a suitcase. She’s been to all US states and lived in 15 of them as well as Niger, where her mother was an accountant for the ambassador.

With more than 10 years of accounting experience for both non- and for-profit organizations, Neota brings calm and order to our finance and operations.

“I believe in what Sustainable Travel International is doing to save destinations so that I’ll get to see them one day and so will my children and their children too,” reflects Webb.

She holds a BA from the University of Oregon and an MBA from American InterContinental University.

Senior Consultant, Standards & Monitoring

Robert has over 20 years of progressive experience evolving from a conservation scientist to an ecotourism operator to a sustainable development planner. He is a dedicated, mission-driven, systems-oriented problem solver who brings quantifiable results to project partners by listening to their needs, crafting strategies based on objective data, building capacity for long term success, and monitoring project impacts for continuous improvement. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources and a Masters in Natural Resources, both from the University of Georgia, where he focused on the socioeconomic and ecological impacts of wilderness recreation and ecotourism respectively.

Robert has led Sustainable Travel International’s work in Vail, Colorado, where he worked with stakeholders to design and pilot the first sustainable mountain destination standard; Innovation Norway, developing an online sustainability management system for destinations; and Royal Caribbean, Hostelling International, and G Adventures, for whom he developed supplier sustainability standards, assessment tools, and sustainability management frameworks. Bobby also builds the capacity of public and private sector on partners on the practical application and monitoring of sustainability practices and impacts, designing and delivering training programs for businesses, destination managers, auditors, and certifiers.