HEALTHY TRAVELER RETREATS
Team
Allyson Parzero Willis
Founder | Host
As a child, Allyson collected vacation brochures and memorized capital cities of countries from around the globe. Fascinated by other cultures, lifestyles and food, Allyson hopped from airport after airport to see the world. Her wanderlust eventually landed her in Thailand where she spent several years studying yoga, teaching English and eating phad thai. After returning to the states, she obtained her certification as a holistic health coach and developed her own unique approach to helping clients lead healthy, happy and adventurous lives. Now, she's combined her knowledge and excitement from all of these experiences to lead Healthy Traveler Retreats.
Mallory Sohmer
Copywriter
Mallory is a strong and thoughtful communicator with varied experience across creative industries and a zest for travel, food and culture. As a producer and director, she's developed content for ad agencies, production companies and non profit organizations. She has a knack for storytelling and helping clients and subjects hone their messages and deliver across multiple platforms. Her heart lies in documentary; she directed The Living Documents and co-directed Walk All Night: A Drum Beat Journey, both stories that address pressing social issues and took her to different parts of the world.
Joanie Willis
Web Developer | Designer
Joanie's curiosity, ingenuity and DIY style have led to a career (and life) of many accomplishments. If it needs to be figured out, Joanie will do the figuring. As a self-taught web developer, designer and graphic artist, Joanie has been producing work for the past 10 years. She is the author of "The Cancer Patient's Workbook" published by Penguin Putnam and more recently, the self-published digital version of that book. She also designed and published "The Metastic Life" by columnist Lisa Pierot. Her time is split between the beaches of Southwest Florida and the mountains of North Carolina where she owns a cabin rental business.
Val Gastaldello
Host
Val's first big trip was leaving her home in Peru for sunny Florida with her family at the age of two. She studied Fashion Merchandising and began her career working for a luxury retail company in Miami. But Val quickly realized that the corporate hustle wasn't for her. She wanted something more. She left her job to embark on a three-month, life-changing backpacking trip across Europe where she discovered her love for travel - exploring off the beaten path spots in new countries, immersing herself into different cultures and connecting with people along the way. And when she’s not on the road, you'll find Val spending her time with her amazing family and friends.
Yoga Team
Casey
Yoga Instructor
Casey was originally forced to practice yoga due to her unbridled teenage rebellion. At first, she hated it! However she eventually came to love it as it helped her overcome clinical depression and bulimia in her early 20’s. She attended Bikram yoga teacher training in fall of 2008. After teaching for about 2 1/2 years in San Antonio, Texas, Casey went back to school at the University of Texas at Austin and finished her degree in Anthropology. During this time she also completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training at Dharma Yoga. Upon completion of her degree she moved to Santiago, Chile to learn Spanish and fulfill a lifelong dream of living in another country and learning another language! In order to satisfy her passion for travel, Casey has recently accepted a job as Flight Attendant in the NYC/New Jersey area and is also teaching yoga in Hoboken, New Jersey. She is so excited to be a part of the Healthy Traveler Retreats team!
Patrick Nolan
Yoga Instructor
Patrick is leading the yoga practice on this year's adventures to Italy and Thailand. While Allyson guides you to each exotic location on
your trip, Patrick will be offering you guidance for your journey
inward. He will be using methods he's learned in his trainings at the
Amrit Yoga Institute to teach yoga and facilitate yoga therapy and
yoga nidra (guided meditation.) All of which designed are to allow you
to feel a profound sense of peace, healing and rejuvenation. Patrick
is also a journalist based in Fort Myers, Florida.