New Faces at The Kusini Collection

The Kusini Team with our Latin American partners! (Left to right: Jascivan Carvalho from Tropic Ecuador, Gretchen Healey, Sonya Bradley, Tad Bradley and Jimmy Rogers from Maya Trails)

I’m extremely excited to announce two new additions to the Kusini Collection team! 

A very warm welcome to Sonya Bradley who joins Kusini as Business Development Manager. Sonya spent 13 years at Country Walkers where she managed the Latin America product and then launched the highly successful CW Safaris division. Her product knowledge in both regions will be a huge asset to Kusini and our North American trade partners. After working with Sonya for the past three years, I’m honored and thrilled that she’s now working with me on this side of the business! And despite our common last name, we are not related! Sonya lives in Stowe, VT and can be reached at sonya at kusinicollection dot com.

I would also like to welcome Gretchen Healey as Marketing and Social Media Manager. She has been quietly working behind-the-scenes managing the Kusini social media marketing and e-newsletters for the last nine months. Quite honestly, she’s been a godsend and I can’t thank her enough! Gretchen lives in Denver, CO and can be reached at gretchen at kusinicollection dot com.

Best,

Tad Bradley
Principal, Kusini Collection

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Learn more about Sonya and Gretchen below!

Sonya Bradley’s passion for authentic and responsible travel is the natural upshot of her extensive travel industry experiences married with her personal adventures and youth spent living abroad. During her tenure at Country Walkers, Sonya championed the Latin America tour division which included new tour development, quality assessment, destination education, guide management and training, and sales. Under her management the Latin America portfolio evolved its own marketing and catalog initiative, as well as securing a significant market share within the company’s broader offerings. With this success, the company turned to Sonya to develop its a stand-alone safari brand. As the Director of CW Safaris, she was responsible for all aspects of the business; from group and private tour development to contract negotiations, marketing, sales, and operations, Sonya created a safari brand that was highly respected within the industry. Also while at CW, she founded and chaired the company’s Responsible Travel Committee and its CW Travelers’ Fund. Hard work and strong relationships worldwide led to award-winning tours and distinguished media coverage.  In addition to her professional experiences in Africa, Sonya also lived on the continent. At the age of nine, her family moved to Tanzania for five years followed by Ghana for many more. Personal and professional travel has taken her on adventures throughout Latin America and Africa – each one life-changing and inspiring. Sonya now brings her love for travel and commitment to traveling responsibly to the Kusini Collection. Her goal is to unite exceptional U.S.-based outfitters with top adventure and luxury travel experiences across the globe.

Gretchen Healey was prepared for a lifelong career immersed in the world of information technology. She spent years in executive leadership at Fortune 50 companies such as IBM and AT&T, but her passion for sustainable travel and wild places won out. Gretchen left the corporate world for a safari consultancy position in 2009, where she developed award-winning itineraries, a sustainability program and expanded the company’s community involvement programs. In 2010, Gretchen founded Pangolin Media, a full service copy writing development and online strategy consulting company focused on the travel industry and wildlife conservation. She has worked with representation companies, tour operators, travel agents, product development organizations and NGO’s in areas that range from communications to field implementation of wildlife protection technology. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Association for the Promotion of Tourism to Africa, as well as on the board of AfricAid, an organization facilitating girls’ education in Tanzania. Her adventures have taken her from the depths of the rain forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the pristine waters of the Galapagos and beyond. Gretchen brings her passion for travel and extensive first-hand experience with Kusini Collection partners to Kusini’s communications, and has been working behind-the-scenes on Kusini’s newsletters and social media since July of 2015.