Outdoors explorer • Lover of books • World traveler • Mother of three (one human and two Baja rescue mutts)

Maria was born in Ukraine, raised in Russia and then in the Seattle, USA area, and spent two decades of adulthood short- and long-term traveling and moving from house to house, fixing up properties with her husband for fun, and scratching a constant itch for new places and new experiences.

She loves taking her son on every adventure (like road tripping for 45 hours to Baja with a six-month-old baby), and nothing makes her happier than when he asks to plan another trip somewhere. She’s finally settled in two places - spending half her time on Whidbey Island with a massive garden, orchard, forest, and beaches, and the other half in the mountains of Northeastern Washington state in a forested log cabin where she can bike, cross-country ski, trail run, paddle board, and generally be immersed in nature and mountain town life.

She’s spent the last two decades working in the travel industry, and because of the amazing and interesting people she’s met and worked with over the years, she can’t imagine working anywhere else. She’s excited to have found Safari Portal, which she says is a game changer for the industry, and seriously fulfills her process and workflow obsessions, her love of new experiences (hello regular new features and releases!) along with the beauty of clean design as a cherry on top!