Shannon O'Donnell

Shannon O’Donnell is a native Floridan. She left the U.S. in 2008 to travel solo around the world—five years later and she is still traveling. At the start of her travels, she founded A Little Adrift.com as a place to document her journey; since then, the site has grown into an international community of travelers and a source of inspiration and advice for others dreaming of traveling long-term. Since the success of her site, A Little Adrift has grown into a resource point intended to encourage and motivate others to travel. She brings that same message to Universities and high schools to speak with the nation's use about global citizenship.

Also stemming from her time on the road, she launched her passion project, Grassroots Volunteering.org, which is a community sourced database of of local, sustainable organizations all over the world and she published her first book, The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook in October 2012. Her work has been featured in Canada's Globe and Mail, Times of India, BBC Travel, Cosmopolitan Italy, and various international travel magazines and publications. In addition to running her two websites, Shannon is a travel writer, speaker, and marketing consultant.