Share the adventure with our remarkable Expedition Team, National Geographic photographers, and Guest Speakers.
Over the 40+ years of our history, the quality of our veteran staff and their companionship is the reason the Lindblad name is known and respected for top-quality expeditions. And now that our expeditions travel with National Geographic Photographers aboard, there is no better team anywhere.
Our excellent staff-to-guest ratio of 1:15 ensures a healthy diversity of specialties — marine biology, ornithology, climatology and more — and personalities. You are never directed into groups, but can gravitate naturally toward the Naturalists whose interest mirror yours. And the Guest Speakers in our Global Perspectives program have chosen to be part of the expedition community to share the adventure, and their companionship, with you.
Select your itinerary to find your particular staff:
TOM RITCHIE
EXPEDITION LEADER
Tom is a professional Naturalist and Expedition Leader who has worked with expedition cruising almost since its inception by Lars Lindblad. Tom has led voyages to the far reaches of the globe, in addition to the world's well-traveled places, such as Europe where he fuels his passion for history, archaeology and culture.
Growing up near the Everglades, Tom completed his graduate studies at the University of Florida in vertebrate paleontology, anthropology and geology. He is an accomplished wildlife artist and collaborated with author Lyall Watson in producing the guidebook Whales of the World.
BUD LEHNHAUSEN
EXPEDITION LEADER
Bud received an undergraduate degree in wildlife biology at Colorado State University. He then immediately went to Alaska where he worked and lived for 30 years. At the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Bud studied wildlife biology and received a master's degree conducting research on four species of seabirds nesting on a remote island in the Gulf of Alaska.
For a number of years he worked as a research biologist and since 1983, Bud has worked as a naturalist and expedition leader with Lindblad Expeditions. During these years he has traveled in the Arctic and Antarctic, temperate and places in between.In addition to traveling, Bud is an avid natural history photographer and his wife writes children's books on natural history illustrating them and using Bud's photographs.
LISA TROTTER
EXPEDITION LEADER & UNDERSEA SPECIALIST
Lisa Trotter grew up landlocked outside Buffalo in upstate New York, before running away to sea. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Northern Michigan University with a Bachelors degree in Health Education and Human Biology, she began working aboard Lindblad Expeditions' Endeavour in 2000. It is in the Polar Regions that Lisa feels most at home however, and much of the year is spent in the Antarctic Peninsula, Sub-Antarctic Islands, and Norwegian Arctic.
She plays an active role in the future of Antarctic tourism, attending the 15th and 16th IAATO conference in New Zealand. Lisa is probably the first person to ever learn to dive in the Antarctic, Lisa's first open water dive was made off Cape Horn, and she has since logged over 900 hours exploring the waters of the Antarctic and Arctic using both SCUBA and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). This vast experience has lead to the production of the Antarctic Dive Guide, published in 2006, and now in its second edition.
KAREN COPELAND
NATURALIST
Born and raised in Canada, Karen received her B.Sc. in biology from the University of Waterloo, her M.D. from the University of Western Ontario and interned at McMaster University in Hamilton. Detouring from hospital hallways, Karen soon became a whitewater guide and published photographer, fulfilling a passion for knowledge that began with botany and led to geology and ornithology. Karen works as a full-time naturalist for Lindblad Expeditions.
Her interest in writing continues in the Daily Expedition Reports she writes as well as in a recently published paper on the foraging behavior of gentoo penguins. Karen is intimately familiar with the seas and the shores of the far reaches of the world from Iceland, Svalbard, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic in the north, to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula in the south. She loves sharing the joy of adventure and the natural world with others.
RICHARD WHITE
NATURALIST
Richard was born and grew up near Portsmouth on the south coast of England. An avid birder from an early age, he soon developed an interest in other areas of natural history, although birds remain his primary interest. Despite being told that bird watching was not a 'proper' job, he always wanted to turn his hobby into a career.
After graduating from Plymouth with a degree in Biological Sciences he started work researching the impact of oil and gas exploration on seabird populations, initially in European waters and then in waters around the Falkland Islands, where he lived for three years. He then moved to Ascension Island where he worked on an ambitious project to restore seabird populations on the island. Richard joined Lindblad Expeditions in 2003 and has since worked year-round for the company, returning to Antarctica year after year
STEPHANIE MARTIN
NATURALIST
Stephanie is a marine mammal scientist who began her career studying finback and humpback whales from a small isolated lighthouse island off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine. This project — an effort to identify individual whales by matching dorsal fin shapes, natural color patters, and any acquired scars — sought to catalog all the mammals that populate the waters from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the New York Bight. She has a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, and a master's degree in Marine Policy from the University of Rhode Island.
She has also worked on various marine mammal projects ranging from collecting small skin samples using a crossbow to spending countless hours in small planes during aerial surveys. She was part of the North Atlantic Right Whale project studying one of the most endangered large whales. When she is not working on expedition ships, Stephanie is a field assistant for a tropical, temperate, and polar marine invertebrate comparison project for British Antarctic Survey. Stephanie has worked on Lindblad Expedition ships since 1999 and loves sharing her knowledge of the natural world and the spirit of adventure found on expedition ships.
At the time of your booking, you will be able to see the staff and the Lindblad-National Geographic Certified Photo Instructor assigned to your departure.