2024 Spring Travel Forum Speakers

Claude Bacon is President/CEO of Greater Owensboro Economic Development.  Prior to his selection in 2023 to lead Owensboro’s economic development efforts, he spent nearly 16 years in the hospitality industry in executive positions at Owensboro’s LinGate Hospitality, a hotel development, investment, and management company. Earlier in his career he worked in higher education administration at Lindsey Wilson College, Western Kentucky University, and Kentucky Wesleyan College.

Claude is a member of KTIA’s Executive Committee and serves as the association’s 2024 Treasurer. 

Claude has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Western Kentucky University in Public Relations, Marketing, and Communications. He lives in Owensboro with his wife, Samantha, and daughters Maggie Beth, and Hadley.

Jillian Dickens is a regenerative tourism consultant and advocate, focused on leveraging visitor experience development as the key tool to enhance the tourism industry’s impact on economic, cultural and environmental resilience. Residing in Spain, she heads up Destination Stewardship at the Transformational Travel Council, facilitating community-based regenerative tourism and transformational travel projects in North America and abroad. She is also the co-founder of Bannikin Travel & Tourism, a global PR, marketing and strategy consultancy for the niche travel space.

Jillian has 20-years’ experience in the travel and tourism industry, and has worked in DMO, operator, consultancy and travel writer roles.

David Fluegge specializes in social and new media at Miles Partnership. From state DMOs like Colorado, Nebraska and Missouri to other destinations and outfitters like Visit Loudoun, Dave has run the gamut on both paid and organic strategies aimed at creating a deeper connection with fans and target audiences through content, partnerships, giveaways and much more. 

Carter M. Hendricks has served as the Executive Director of the South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council since early 2020. Prior to that role, he served as Hopkinsville’s second youngest mayor from 2015 to 2020. 

In these roles, Carter has helped secure over 2,000 new jobs and over $2.25B in new capital investment since 2020, led the region during the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse Festival and to earning All American City Finalist status and the highest TVA Livability Score in 2020. 

Carter also served as the President/CEO of the Christian County Chamber of Commerce from 2010-2014. Over this period the Chamber earned 5-star accreditation and was a 2013 National Chamber of the Year Finalist. His previous professional experiences include teacher, coach, after school supervisor, grant coordinator, college instructor, and AmeriCorps member.

He has received numerous recognitions and is an active participant on a variety of local and regional boards and commissions.

Carter earned his undergraduate degree from Western Kentucky University as a Political Science and History major and a graduate degree, emphasis on education, from Concordia University. He is married to Faye Eleanor Hendricks and is the proud dad of Lily Kaye and Chase. 

Makayla Keely is a skilled social media strategist with five years of experience building compelling online identities for niche startups and leading international brands. As a Content Manager at Miles Partnership, she drives the implementation of content strategies that effectively respond to emerging SEO and digital trends for the hospitality division. 

Chef  Ouita Michel and her husband Chris Michel opened the Holly Hill Inn in 2001 in Midway, Ky. as a fine dining restaurant featuring a seasonal prix fixe menu and award-winning wine list. Their culinary family has since expanded to include seven restaurants, a bakery, and an events business; all in central Kentucky. In 2021 Ouita unified her businesses under the new banner of Holly Hill and Co., celebrating Kentucky food culture, agriculture and the arts.

Ouita has received eight nominations from the James Beard Foundation for Best Chef Southeast and two for Outstanding Restaurateur. In 2021, she published her first cookbook, Just A Few Miles South: Timeless Recipes from Our Favorite Places.  Her Holly Hill restaurants are often featured in media such as The New York Times, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, CBS This Morning, Food Network and Cooking Channel. In 2019, Chef Michel served as a guest judge on Bravo’s Top Chef Kentucky series, which she was instrumental in bringing to the state.

She is a founding and current board member of FoodChain, a nonprofit in the heart of Lexington, Ky., improving community access to fresh food through education, engagement and the working example of a sustainable food system. Chef Michel also serves on the board of The Hindman Settlement School and a member of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence,

Ouita holds degrees from the University of Kentucky and the Culinary Institute of America. She is a 2020 inductee of the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

Ouita, husband Chris, and their daughter Willa live in a 200-year-old cabin beside the Holly Hill Inn.

Travis Napper is Director of Destination Partnerships at Tourism Economics; an Oxford Economics company dedicated to understanding the relationship between travel and the economy.

Travis uses his experience as both a state tourism director and a DMO President to connect DMO clients to data-centric solutions and has the understanding to provide answers to complex problems.

Roni is the Executive Director of Travel Unity, a New York based nonprofit organization that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the travel and tourism industry, and that focuses on making the world of travel welcoming to people of all backgrounds and identities. He leads a team of staff and volunteers who develop and execute projects and programs that empower under-represented individuals and communities. Roni and Travel Unity has coordinated with experts from inside and outside the travel industry to create two sets of publicly available DEI standards that provide guidelines and best practices for (a) visitor-facing organizations and (b) special events and sports.

Roni also founded and organized the New York Travel Festival, an annual event that attracted hundreds of attendees to discuss issues around sustainability, innovation, and storytelling. 

An avid traveler, Roni has visited 70+ countries, including every country in Europe, and six of seven continents. He lives in Pleasantville, NY with his partner, Lauren, and their four children.