CONTRIBUTORS On how their education has encouraged their careers…
Jennifer Ashton Ryan
Jackie Caradonio
“DIALOGUE: MICHAELA MARES-TAMAYO, PHD” PG. 40
“TOWN AND COUNTRY” PG. 53
COLLEGE CURRICULUM: “I was an English and creative writing major at UCLA, but it was working as a writing tutor for my peers that prepared me for my job as a magazine editor. I was reading other people’s writing, practicing over and over that skill of finding a buried lede, clarifying the nut graph, and reaching a conclusion.”
COLLEGE CURRICULUM: “My university studies couldn’t have been more perfectly suited for a life of writing about travel: I doublemajored in journalism and Spanish language.”
Sarah Carr
Shaun Tolson
“AND WE'RE BACK” PG. 108
“SMOOTH SAILING” PG. 120
After graduating from UCLA, Ryan became an editor for Robb Report and saw the world, reporting on new villas, resorts, and islands—from Thailand to Chile’s Atacama Desert. Now travel includes three small children, so priorities have changed.
This Los Angeles–based writer and editor has covered style, travel, beauty, and culture for Goop and other lifestyle brands. If she’s not refreshing her browser for flight deals, balancing her chakras, or consulting a thesaurus, you’ll probably find Carr sipping mezcal out of a crooked ceramic mug she threw in her backyard pottery studio. COLLEGE CURRICULUM: “I studied creative writing and psychology
in college, and today I’m writing and self-diagnosing at what I consider to be a professional level. Success! But, I’ve also had jobs in production, marketing, voice-over acting, and plenty of other things I’m mediocre at.”
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Caradonio is former travel director for Departures magazine. As a freelance journalist and photographer, her work has been featured in Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Town & Country, National Geographic, and The New York Times.
Tolson’s journalism career spans more than 15 years and has taken him to five continents and dozens of countries. As a lifestyle journalist, he most enjoys writing about engaging experiences and strives to emphasize the people at the center of those stories. COLLEGE CURRICULUM: “I double-majored in English and communications, creating my own journalism degree since I knew I wanted to pursue a career in that industry. That said, the most beneficial aspect of my college education was taking a featurewriting workshop taught by the then-editor of Boston magazine. That not only sparked my interest in and love for magazine writing, but it also taught me a bit about how the industry worked.”
