Michaela Hackner

• Website: http://blog.kalabird.com
• Biography: Michaela Hackner is the Director of Online Strategy at World Learning, a US non-profit involved in international experiential education and international development. Prior to this position she worked for a women’s microfinance program in Cambodia and Kenya where she documented her travels heavily through photography and her personal blog. Michaela had a transformative study abroad experience when she found herself photographing displaced persons in a earthquake relief camp in Bolu, Turkey in 1999, subsequently shifting the path of her life forever. Through her international photography series, Michaela hopes to share a unique window into the world, increase global awareness of poverty, and empower people to make a difference in their own lives. Through a smile in a rural village, a laugh shared between two travelers, or a “thumbwar” in a relief camp, Michaela explores the truth that no experience is too small to have an impact on someone’s life.