Laura Powell is a veteran travel and wellness journalist and consultant. Back in the 20th century, Laura developed CNN’s travel programming, and was CNN’s original travel reporter.

After leaving the network, Laura has been a prolific freelance contributor, largely covering travel and wellness. Her outlets have ranged from The Washington Post and USA Today to CNN.com and WUSA television. Between 2017 and 2020, she served as luxury and wellness editor for Skift. Currently, she is a correspondent for Hospitality Insights and the Special Assignments Editor for Organic Spa Magazine. In that role, she recently developed an extensive certification program for travel advisors called Wellness Travel University.

Wearing her consultant’s hat, Laura works with destinations to help them identify, inventory, develop and market their wellness tourism assets. She also provides Pitch Perfect seminars to PR professionals to help them better tailor their messages to journalists.