Generosity as a Nomad
Nomad Profile
Ashley is the author of the Substack Practical Globetrotters, which chronicles her and her partner Levon’s global adventures and their fondness for UNESCO World Heritage Sites. As early retirees, they’ve been traveling the world since 2024 (60 countries & counting!) and answer how-to questions for the expat and nomad communities.
What I really appreciate is Ashley’s generosity. All paid subscriptions fund women and girls’ education, healthcare, and entrepreneurship. How cool is that?! Insta-subscribe for me! 🌻
9 Fun Facts
First Name: Ashley
Age Range: 60s
Nationality: American
Nomadic Stance: Full-time
Last Corporate Job: Vice President of Business Development for a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded international development implementer
Current Job: Retired/volunteer
Favorite Country: Oooh - this is way too hard to answer! Some of our long time favorites are some of the places we’ve lived like Zambia, Kenya, and Mexico. But we have some recent favorites from our travels that we can’t wait to go back to like Poland, Laos, Malaysia, France, the Netherlands, Argentina.
Next Stop: returning to our favorite “home base” in Mexico for a couple of months
What do you like best about the nomadic life? Adventure
2 Questions
1) You’ve decided to center philanthropy as part of your travel. What led to your decision to donate all Substack subscriptions to nonprofit organizations?
I spent more than 30 years working in international development—mainly in economic development and job creation, global health, and rule of law/anti‑corruption—so that lens shapes almost everything about how I see the world.
My personal passion has always been supporting issues related to women and girls: access to quality education, backing women‑owned and women‑led businesses, and comprehensive health care, especially reproductive health.
Now that I’m no longer drawing a paycheck, directing all blog profits to these causes is one way I can keep actively giving to and promoting the issues I care about most for as long as I’m able to write and share our travels.
We focus on organizations where we know the founders and teams personally and/or are involved as volunteers, so we’ve seen their work on the ground and trust that the impact is real and meaningful.
2) Traveling to UNESCO World Heritage Sites is your primary focus. What is drawing you to these important places?
We’ve spent 12 years as expats and are now two years into full‑time nomadic life. That time has made it very clear what brings us the most joy: places where culture, architecture, food, nature, and local traditions are not just present but actively being protected and passed on.
UNESCO sites tend to sit at that intersection. Visiting them lets us learn about history and contemporary life in a much deeper way, which keeps travel exciting and meaningful rather than just a list of “must‑see” spots.
We’re not interested in chasing every Instagram‑famous viewpoint—those can be fun in small doses. But we are very interested in making sure our tourism helps sustain the places and communities we’re lucky enough to visit.
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Christened “Wander Woman” by National Geographic, Erin Michelson has traveled to 135 countries & all 7 continents. She is a professional speaker and author of the Nomad Life™ series of curated trips and travel guides, including the #1-ranked Explore the World with Nomads.
Curious to read more Nomad Profiles? Get the bonus edition to the guide—Meet 10 More Nomads: Bonus Interviews 11-20.
