Lynn O'Rourke Hayes is a writer and photographer. She is a travel expert, the Editor and co-owner of FamilyTravel.com, and a weekly travel columnist for the Dallas Morning News. She is a regular contributor and writes an adventure blog for GoodHousekeeping.com. She also writes a luxury column and contributes to TravelMuse.com and other print, online and broadcast outlets.
She has spent more than 25 years writing and speaking about travel and family issues. She has worked for two hotel companies and consulted to numerous other organizations within the travel industry. Lynn and a partner organized and accompanied a 24-day, around the world golf trip on the Concorde. A member of the Author’s Guild, she has written a book about balancing work and family ( Macmillan and Ballantine ) and contributed to several others. Her articles and comments have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic. She's appeared before the U.S. Congress, on CNN, NBC’s The Today Show and numerous other television and radio programs, as well as before groups large and small.
She received a Presidential Citation from President Reagan in a Rose Garden Ceremony for her creation of a successful public/private partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Choice Hotels International. The next year she was awarded a commendation from the Commerce Department for spearheading the development of a crisis management plan for the US travel industry.
Recently, along with her lifelong friend Colleen Horan, she founded Hearts In Bloom, (www.HeartsInBloom.org) a non-profit organization whose volunteers deliver fresh flowers to hospice patients each week.
Her travels have taken her to more than 35 countries, across deserts, down rivers, over mountains, through jungles and to 48 of our 50 states. But her favorite trips - business and pleasure - are those that include her husband, one, two or all three of her children.
A graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, she resides in Scottsdale, AZ and Bozeman, Mt. |
