Kalin Thomas
Kalin Thomas is an award-winning, multimedia storyteller who gets geeked about cultural heritage tourism and preservation. Her passion is telling the stories of African American and multicultural heritage sites, museums and cultural centers through her skills in writing, museum programming and tour planning. The former program director for The Wren’s Nest helped tell the story of Georgia’s oldest house museum and its preservation of African and African American folktales.
Kalin is also a former producer and correspondent for CNN’s weekly travel program, TravelNow, where she helped broaden the program’s appeal to a multicultural TV audience through her series on travel trends among African Americans, LGBTQ tourists and travelers with disabilities. Her storytelling for CNN took her to six continents, including Antarctica, which is why she agrees with the Mark Twain quote: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
The “Multimedia Maven” has produced and voiced promotional videos and radio spots for nonprofits, as well as been a speaker or moderator at various conferences. She is a contributing writer for the book, Embracing the Real World: The Black Woman’s Guide to Life After College, and has had her writing and photography published in SoulOfAmerican.com, CuisineNoir.com, ExploreGeorgia.com, Travel & Leisure, Essence, Upscale and Black Meetings and Tourism magazines.
Kalin’s memberships include the National Association of Black Journalists and the Small Museum Association. She is currently writing a book about her travels, entitled DO YOU KNOW SHE’S BLACK? The Journey of CNN’s First Black Travel Reporter.
