Meet The Team
Lia Garcia
CEO & Co-Founder
Lia grew up on a farm in Kentucky, but for whatever reason, has always had a Californian accent (possibly due to watching Clueless at a young, impressionable age). She was a serial entrepreneur from a young age – she once locked her parents out of their kitchen, printed up a menu, and forced them to order off of it.
She graduated with a degree in fashion design, apparel merchandising, and business and spent five glamorous years in the fashion industry as a buyer, and then became a Business Systems Analyst, which is not glamorous at all. Then she got married, quit her job, took a disastrous year-long honeymoon, started a travel blog, and boom: here we all are.
Jeremy Garcia
Co-Founder & Podcast Lead
Jeremy grew up on the California Central Coast and discovered a love of writing, photography, and film. He moved to San Francisco in 2009 to attend school. Then he met some chick named Lia; boring story. He teaches photography, film, and graphic design to high school students. At Practical Wanderlust, he focuses his attention on the podcast, writing, and photography. He also serves as the founder and executive director of The Wander Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps provide students with culturally immersive travel opportunities.
Mulan Garcia
Best Dog
Mulan was born in August 2019 in South Korea. She was rescued as a puppy from the meat industry by a local organization and flown to a shelter called Jelly’s Place, where she was adopted by Lia and Jeremy. They have been a happy family ever since.
Mulan is mostly Pomeranian/American Eskimo dog, with a lot of other breeds thrown in to create the perfect dog. Her interests include napping, cuddling, befriending strangers, destroying stuffies, licking everything, snuffling, parking lots, leaves, cheese, and standing on or near windows to keep watch on the block. In her brief time as a traveler, she’s learned that she loves road trips, hates flying, and definitely prefers the beach to the snow.
You can follow along with Mulan’s adventures and general adoreableness on her Instagram, @mulanthefloof!
Richie Goff
Editor in Chief
Richie Goff was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and graduated from the University of Louisville with a degree in English and linguistics. Richie enjoys theatre (he attended a performing arts high school), playing the ukulele, and growing flowers (you can follow his flower farm Instagram @magichourflowerfarm).
Richie has always loved to travel, springing from three cross-country van trips with his family growing up. His farthest adventure to date was visiting Japan, and he is excited to travel more of the world in the future!
Melissa Castañeda
Head of Social Media Marketing
Melissa was born and raised in Oakland, CA and recently moved to Florida to continue growing outside of her comfort zone and building in her entrepreneurial endeavors. She is currently on her journey as a First Gen to a Bachelors Degree in Entrepreneurship.
Melissa is passionate about healing herself from the inside out. Conscious consumption, movement and creation are the top three pillars which she chooses to ground her self in. She loves taking care of herself – her mental and physical health are always her main priorities. She strives to educate and inspire others to take care of themselves from the inside out as well on their journey to inner-standing themselves.
Between juggling her job as a Social Media Marketing Manager and being a part time student, she also is a full time creative who shares her journey across various platforms in hopes of touching others hearts and reminding them of everything they already knew but forgot.
Psst: Love plants? Wanna grow your own collection by supporting her small Latina-Woman Owned Business? Follow her on Instagram! @milisuuh @hijadelanaturalezaa
Natalie Collins
Head of Email Marketing & Affiliate Marketing
Natalie is an English girl born and raised in Yorkshire. In 2017, after 13 years working in business development, she quit her job and set up offering business management support to solo business owners. She then spent 3 years living the beach life in a surf village in Morocco before moving to Barcelona with her adopted Moroccan street dog, Zina.
Natalie joined the team in 2018 and has worked across most of the business, helping Lia with anything and everything needed.
She also writes on Medium with dreams of one day writing a book on life, making dumb/amazing decisions and being a solo woman throughout it all.
Katie Broadhurst
Certified Online Business Manager
With over a decade guiding and supporting adventure trips around the world and almost eight years of online business management under her belt, she joins the team to support growing the Practical Wanderlust brand.
Katie oversees bigger-scale projects here at Practical Wanderlust (like launching How to Quit Your Job & Travel) while also supporting the team to move forward in a coordinated effort.
Katie’s passion for adventure travel has taken her on big expeditions like horse-riding in Mongolia for a month, trekking to EBC in Nepal, solo hiking in Iceland, sailing the Bahamas for a month, as well as many, many backcountry adventures in her home country, Canada.
Kala Bradford
Videographer & Content Creator
Kala has worked in video production and digital storytelling for nearly 10 years, and is responsible for creating the visual storyline behind Practical Wanderlust’s many travels. She strives to educate, inform and inspire with the videos she creates for Practical Wanderlust. From shifting her career from broadcast journalism to more ‘behind the camera’ visual artistry and production she’s had the opportunity to work with nationally renowned television shows and productions, including the Carbonaro Effect, TedX, and Warner Brothers newest ‘Batman’ film!
After graduating from Indiana University, she left the country for nearly 4 years to teach English as a foreign language in the south of Spain. Traveling is an integral part of her passion and drive. She tries to implement those lessons, experiences and unique perspectives to every endeavor life throws.
Kala enjoys listening to music, soul-searching, dogs, tarot readings, creating visually stimulating content, long walks in nature, staring at homes with unique architecture, daydreaming, collaging, riding horses, Indian motorcycles, plants and sunlight.
Tyler Hafer
Podcast Producer
As music producer and overall sonic entrepreneur, Tyler has his hands in music production, sound design, scoring, and podcast production. He’s responsible for making the Practical Wanderlust Podcast sound its best! He’s passionate about crafting immersive sound design to really put the listener in the story being told by Lia and Jeremy on the show.
Tyler’s favorite things include making music, astronomy, spirituality, traveling, hiking, beach bumming, and motorcycles.
Emily Batdorf
Contributing Writer
Emily is a native Michigander, but only recently returned after spending several amazing years teaching science in the mountains of Wyoming. After studying Environmental Science in school, Emily moved out West to teach kids about geology, ecology, and snow science – all on the trails of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. She moved home to be closer to family and to pursue new career interests. She recently launched her copywriting business and loves writing about all things travel- and outdoors-related.
Emily’s favourite things include hiking, canoeing, cross-country skiing, drinking beer outside, books, coffee on the porch, and freshwater swimming.