About Austin Travels

After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, Mauri Elbel moved to St. John in the Virgin Islands where she worked as a reporter and editor at the island’s only newspaper for several years before moving down under to Australia where she earned a master’s degree in journalism from The University of Queensland in Brisbane. Back at home in the sun-soaked capital of Texas, Mauri keeps busy raising three kids, writing about family travel and design, and as the co-founder and vice president of Carrying Hope––a 501c3 nonprofit which positively impacts the way children enter foster care throughout Texas. Over the past decade, Mauri’s work has appeared in dozens of publications and she’s been a regular contributor to the Austin American-Statesman, Austin Monthly, Austin Woman and Austin Home.
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Kristin Finan grew up roadtripping to U.S. destinations in the back of her family’s Volvo station wagon, an experience that instilled in her a great love for the open road. An Air Force brat and University of Texas graduate, Kristin is a former staff writer and travel editor of the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman, where she was fortunate to visit locales spanning Barcelona (her favorite city) to Singapore (durian tasting? Check!). She is also the author of four travel books and the co-founder of Carrying Hope, www.carryinghope.com, an Austin-based 501c3 nonprofit that provides comfort items and essentials to children entering the foster care system. A foster and adoptive mom herself, Kristin most enjoys exploring the world with her husband and six kids, who most recently have set a goal of visiting every U.S. national park.
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Pam LeBlanc grew up in Austin and attended Texas A&M University. She worked at the Plano Star-Courier and The Monitor in McAllen, Texas, before joining the staff of the Austin American-Statesman in 1998. During a nearly 21-year career at the Statesman, she wrote about fitness, travel and adventure. She’s on the loose today as a freelance writer specializing in stories about outdoor adventure and recreation, from backpacking and scuba diving to paddling and snow skiing. Her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, Texas Highways Magazine, Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine, Real Simple, AARP, Austin Monthly, Texas Co-op Power, Tribeza, the Houston Chronicle and more. Her first book, “My Stories, All True: J. David Bamberger on Life as an Entrepreneur and a Conservationist,” was released in September 2020.
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Casey Chapman Ross is a native and current Austinite, living here with her husband and three kids. She earned a B.A. in Studio Art at the University of Texas and has been a full-time freelance photographer for eight years. In 2019, she opened CCR Press, a publishing label focusing on progressive titles. Currently, she focuses on growing her travel writing and hospitality portfolio and involving her family in these assignments as often as possible. As a champion supporting the causes she holds dear, including unique properties that help visitors explore their natural environments, Casey is tireless in her efforts to lift up those causes with positive, powerful imagery.