Kiona, Ph.D., M.S., M.A. is the founder of the award-winning digital platform How Not To Travel Like A Basic Bitch, which was launched in 2016. Seeing the deficits in academia where rarely Brown and Black people are rarely deemed experts in their own cultures and access to higher education is placed behind a huge paywall, she created a platform that does the opposite. She travels the world spotlighting different cultures, redefines the expert, and uplifts marginalized voices, hosting and teaching publicly streamed lessons for free on a gift-based model. Making global education accessible to anyone with a smartphone.
Her work has gotten her Travel Content Creator of the Year by Audacity Fest and World’s Best Influencer by Fodor’s Travel. In addition, her travel expertise has gotten her features in Outside Magazine, Huffington Post, Washington Post, Pop Sugar, Next Shark, and many more. She’s been the keynote speaker at the Cosmos Summit, diversity expert panelist at World Travel Market, and moderator at MissFits Fest.
She hosts a biweekly podcast called How Not To Travel which has hit Top 10 in UK/Ireland, USA, France, and Australia. She also has taken her educational classes offline and does monthly education trips to Cuba where her study abroad program is sold out a year in advance. She also runs a mentorship program called How Not To Grad School Like A Basic Bitch, which facilitates People Of Color getting into graduate school on fully funded programs.
Born and raised in Hawai’i and of mixed race Korean/Austrian descent, she frequently discusses the intentional erasure of Asian history, voices, and representation and advocates for Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in the media. @howtonottravellikeabasicbitch @laurendeleary @officialadamfrost https://hownottotravellikeabasicbitch.com/links/
