Trouvaille Travel Talk on Tucson Business Radio, Ep#1

Guests

Chuck Mai (pronounced “may”), 
Vice President, Public & Government Affairs (Ret.)
AAA Oklahoma/South Dakota

Born in Chicago, Chuck was reared in Des Moines, Baldwin City (Kan.) and Columbia (Mo.).  It was in Columbia that Chuck attended high school and the University of Missouri – School of Journalism, earning his Bachelor of Journalism degree in 1972.

For 15 years, Chuck pursued a career in broadcasting, working in the news departments of radio and television stations in Aspen, Denver, and Tulsa.

In 1987, Chuck joined the staff of AAA Oklahoma/South Dakota as head of the Public Affairs department.  His duties included not only handling the club’s public and media relations and legislative/government affairs activities, but also administering the club’s many traffic safety programs, serving as the club’s community service projects coordinator, and editing Home & Away magazine, now AAA World, the member publication sent six times annually to all AAA members in Oklahoma/South Dakota.

AAA serves as the voice of AAA members, representing them in the halls of state legislatures, in Congress and before the many agencies and departments within state government. The club’s primary advocacy issues continue to revolve around highway funding and traffic safety.

Chuck retired in the fall of 2017 and now pursues freelance travel writing assignments for publications such as Oklahoma Magazine. He and his wife Nancy enjoy life in Carlton Landing, a new town embracing “new urbanism,” located on the shores of Lake Eufaula (Okla.), the “Gentle Giant,” the largest lake in Oklahoma at 105,000 acres and 800 miles of shoreline. Chuck enjoys raising herbs, walking, cooking, travel (of course) and their beautiful new grandchild, Sadie, age five months.

Kristal MacDough 

kmacdough@tucson.com 
 Other: Phone: (520) 909-2923 
Kristal MacDough was reared an Air Force “brat,” giving her the itch for travel from a very young age. Her family lived in all four corners of the United States, from Michigan to Texas, New York to Alaska, and Georgia to California. She transplanted herself in 1984 to Arizona, which has been home since then.  

 Kristal is currently an account executive with the Arizona Daily Star and oversees advertising efforts for SaddleBag Notes, the SaddleBrooke community’s monthly newspaper. Throughout her career, Kristal has served as Director of Advertising and Communications for KB Home, Marketing Manager for Meritage Homes, worked in Development for the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture and the Eller College of Management, and was Director of Communications & Special Events for a national securities firm in Phoenix.  

 Her travels have taken her to Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Scotland, Ireland, Hawaii, Canada, and numerous points in between, just to name a few. 

 Kristal is also a Certified Life Coach and Meditation Instructor, and a writer currently working on her first novel. She is a self-proclaimed “sunshine gal” and is never disappointed with Mother Nature’s gifts of deserts, mountains, and valleys, and summer monsoons, to the Grand Canyon State.