Mari-Elena Baldwin
Director, Island Spice, Inc.

Mari-Elena founded Island Spice, Inc. in July, 2003 following more than 15 years in Sales and Marketing within the travel industry. Her experience, primarily within the Caribbean and Mexico, includes leading the sales and marketing efforts for regional airlines and resorts with such companies as Marriott International, Sonesta Hotels and Air Aruba.

Most recently Mari-Elena served as Director of Travel Industry Sales for Marriott Offshore Resorts: A collection of 10 resorts in the destinations of Aruba, St. Thomas, Jamaica, Curacao, St. Kitts, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta. Achievements at Marriott International included obtaining an increase in production from this segment of more than 56% in the first year alone. Mari-Elena also holds a Graduate Degree in Travel & Tourism Management from Clemson University and an Undergraduate Degree in Marketing from Shorter College.

Deborah Traussi
National Sales, DEB Marketing

Deborah Traussi has over 11 years experience selling to travel agents in the key markets of Westchester, Manhattan and Northern New Jersey. Prior to that she has 10 years experience in the hospitality industry both in the United States and the Caribbean. Deborah is from the Bahamas where she began her hospitality career. After completing Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration she spent 4 years in Manhattan working for the New York Hilton and then the Grand Hyatt.

Lori McCarthy

Manager,
McCarthy Travel Consulting

Lori McCarthy has enjoyed a 15-year career in Wholesale Product Development, working closely with hotels and twice launching completely new programs for travel wholesalers. Most recently, Lori was part of a team that launched NLG Vacations, providing private label programs for companies such as Orbitz and Yahoo!. In her first role at Globetrotters she managed the Caribbean product and started the Continental Vacations program. From there, she established the Caribbean product line for Kingdom Vacations. In each of these challenges, she guided hundreds of hotel partners on pricing, promotion, and inventory to establish these programs for wholesalers. Lori has a B.S. in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.

Ann Andreas
Sales Representative, AMA Marketing - Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn

Ann has over 20 years experience selling to travel agents. She was the Director of Sales for Friendly Holidays, a nationwide tour operator for 10 years and employed by the company for almost 17 years in various capacities. In 1991, Ann started her own independent sales company, AMA Travel Marketing and represents a wide variety of suppliers which include a tourist office, tour operators and hotels. Ann is an Executive Member of the Long Island CTO.

Carla Caccavale

Honorary Island Spice Staff Member and Advisor,
Partner Quinn & Co. Public Relations

Carla is actually the original Island Spice Girl having created the name and concept.