Alexandra Rose is the Science Editor for Ocean Geographic Magazine, and the Managing Editor for Ocean Geographic Explorers. In 2017, she founded Blue Ring in an effort to create a new method of ocean conservation accessible to and inclusive of everyone. Her driving goal is to find ways to protect our world’s precious marine habitats.

Ann Andreasen is the Principal of the Uummannaq Children’s Home and the founding director of the Uummannaq Polar Institute in Greenland. Social educator and family therapist, she has devised original educational activities including dog sled expeditions, hunting and fishing schools, international summer holiday camps, music therapy and filmmaking workshops.

Dr. Cassandra Brooks is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. She works at the intersection of marine science, environmental policy and public outreach to achieve conservation solutions. Cassandra has a fierce passion for Antarctica, with the last fifteen years of her career focused on protecting the region.

David Borish is a social researcher and documentary filmmaker pushing the boundaries of using audio-visual methodologies to explore and understand relationships between humans and wildlife across the Arctic and Subarctic. He was named as one of the Explorer’s Club’s annual “50 People Changing the World That the World Needs to Know About” class for 2023.

Diego Cardeñosa is a Colombian Marine Scientist focused on the conservation of elasmobranchs. I combine molecular and field-based tools to answer pressing questions for conservation to drive management actions around the world. My research has taking me from the largest wildlife markets in Asia, to unexplored regions in South America.

George Kourounis is an award-winning explorer, storm chaser & TV presenter who has spent 25 years documenting extreme forces of nature and natural phenomena around the globe including tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, floods, and the effects of climate change. He is frequently seen showcasing nature’s fury on television programs worldwide.

In 1998, Heather Halstead, a pioneer of virtual exchange, founded Reach the World, a global education nonprofit with the mission to bring the world into the classroom. Reach the World makes the benefits of travel accessible to classrooms, inspiring all students, in all communities, to become curious, confident, and compassionate global citizens.

Jamal Galves known globally as the manatee man is a conservationist, and a National Geographic Explorer.  Since eleven he has been working to conserve the endangered Antillean manatees of Belize. He is the Program Coordinator with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute Belize. Galves is passionate about saving this species.

Dr. Jessica Glass is an Assistant Professor of Fisheries Genomics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, an Honorary Research Associate of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, and Fellow National of The Explorers Club. Dr. Glass leads marine field expeditions across the world, from Alaska to South Africa.

Mike Magidson’s films include Inuk, Call of the Ice, among others. In Call of the Ice, mentored and outfitted by the local Inuit community, Magidson attempts to survive for several weeks, alone on an ice floe, using dog sleds to fish and hunt seal. He will accompany Ann Andreasen and the adult orphans on the PONANT voyage.

Graham Reynolds is a tropical biologist who studies remote islands. He is an Associate Professor of Biology, a National Geographic Explorer, and a Fellow of the Explorers Club. He has published dozens of papers and books that have been featured in the New York Times and Smithsonian Magazine, among others.

Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña is the head of science communication for the University of Colorado Boulder's Climate Adaptation Science Center. She's a national fellow of The Explorers Club and holds a PhD in geological sciences, specializing in glaciology. By the time she turned 23, Ulyana had traveled to and worked on all 7 continents.

Vickie Siegel leads expeditionary work in challenging polar and underground environments. She has accumulated a year’s time in Antarctica and seven months in Greenland working as a robotics designer, research camp manager, and fieldwork mentor. Also a cave explorer, Vickie participates in expeditions to explore and map some of the world’s deepest cave systems.