Sheila Scarborough (photo courtesy Korey Howell Photography)

Sheila Scarborough is a writer, speaker and consultant specializing in tourism, travel and social media. She's written for many blogs and print publications and is also a certified Navy Master Training Specialist, with years of experience as an instructor. Sheila trains and speaks regularly about social media to a variety of audiences, including journalists, public relations and marketing professionals, tourism and economic development experts and Web developers.   Along with Becky McCray, Sheila is the co-founder of TourismCurrents.com, an online learning community and membership site where tourism and hospitality professionals learn how to use social media for their destination marketing.      Sheila served for almost 23 years as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy aboard ships homeported in Hawaii, California, Virginia and Japan plus shore duty in Washington D.C. and Rhode Island. She also lived overseas with her family in the Netherlands during a tour with NATO, began writing part-time while on active duty, and is now enjoying a successful career as a full-time writer, blogger and speaker.   She is a 2010 Austin American-Statesman Texas Social Media Award winner:    "Her energy and enthusiasm for using new tools is incredible and infectious. Sheila has pulled the tourism industry into the 21st century with her sharp ideas and her love for new forms of communication."    She is a founding member of the Association for Women in Communications (AWC) National Tech Committee (planning tech and social media training for members) and she's a Board member of Freelance Austin.  Here is her LinkedIn profile. You can also find her on Facebook, on Twitter, on the photo-sharing site Flickr and her video channel on YouTube.   Married with two children, she's an NHRA drag racing fan because there's one winner, one loser and no whining.