Talk to an Expedition Specialist
1.800.EXPEDITION (1.800.397.3348)
Our team is the key to your incredible adventure
Explore the Arctic in the company of top experts. Benefit from their expertise—marine and terrestrial biology, botany, geology, and more—and benefit from their passion to share the wonder of this incredible region. Enjoy their company; you’ll find our Arctic expedition team highly engaging and fun to share a drink or dinner with, as well as a hike.
Naturalist/Expedition Diver
Colin grew up scuba diving with his family, and fell in love with the ocean at an early age. He has been fortunate to dive in many exotic corners of the world, and to work on a number of undersea research projects studying whale sharks and several deep water fish species. After graduating from the University of Vermont, he began working in various capacities aboard expedition ships. During his travels he photographed and shared his adventures as a way of making remote areas and cultures more accessible. It was in Santa Barbara, California that he learned how to photograph underwater, and combined two of his great passions, photography and the sea. Exploring and documenting the vast richness, diversity, and beauty of the underwater world continues to be a lifelong endeavor.
Naturalist
Conor Ryan is a congenital ecologist. His career began in the late 1980s, when he developed a keen interest in intertidal ecology, undertaking almost daily field trips to the seashore across from his home in Cobh, Ireland. Though he logged significant hours searching beneath barnacle-studded rocks for eels, his publication record on this seminal research was sorely lacking because he was five years old. As he grew, so too did the size of the marine creatures that he was preoccupied with.
Naturalist
David is an accomplished professional guide and polar Expedition Leader from Sweden. He has spent a big part of his life traveling between the Arctic and Antarctic, working as a full-time adventure guide. David has a wide range of experience having led expeditions in Svalbard, Greenland, Scotland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and of course Antarctica. In May 2016 David completed an unsupported crossing of Greenland’s inland ice following the footsteps of one of his heroes, Fridtjof Nansen. The 600 kilometer long journey across the ice totaled 27 days. Furthermore, he has spent several winters driving snowmobiles and guiding for Sweden’s IceHotel, often in temperatures dropping down to minus 40 degrees.
Naturalist
Elise’s passion for travel and interpretation is evident when you learn about the places she has chosen to live, work and travel. A degree in environmental studies introduced her to the world of interpreting nature, which has evolved into both a passion and profession.
Naturalist
Eric began work with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic in 2006 as a means to see the world, work with great photographers and engage his environmental studies degree beyond the classroom. His initial years with the company were spent working the waters of Southeast Alaska and Baja California. His move to the National Geographic Explorer in 2008 helped earn him the experience and knowledge needed to establish himself as a trusted boat handler, naturalist and respected photographer in nearly all the environments Lindblad-National Geographic travels.
Undersea Specialist
James is your typical free-range Pacific Northwest outdoorsy type. Born in Seattle and reared nearby on Vashon Island, he is most comfortable in slightly cold and damp weather. James joined the Lindblad team in July 2016 as a dive buddy and has been in love with expedition travel since. On his own he has traveled to Europe, Asia, and Australia, but with Lindblad he hopes to continue his adventures across the globe, searching out the beauties of the natural world. An avid scuba diver James can’t help being excited about whales, sharks, and pinnipeds, but he will also happily bend your ear about underwater slugs and invertebrates. It’s best just to humor him about these things.
Naturalist
Jennifer Kingsley is a Canadian journalist, a National Geographic Explorer, and the Field Correspondent for Lindblad Expeditions. She has travelled extensively in the global Arctic and throughout the temperate rain forest of the Pacific Rim. After completing her biology degree, she worked in Canada's Rocky Mountain National Parks before moving to British Columbia to specialize in grizzly bear ecology. Jennifer spent several seasons sailing among the whales, bears, and wolves of the Great Bear Rainforest.
Naturalist/Certified Photo Instructor
Michael Nolan was born in Bitburg, Germany to an Air Force family stationed there. His first experience of the ocean came at age 12, when he learned to snorkel in the Italian Mediterranean. At age 17 he moved to Tucson, Arizona and became a PADI SCUBA instructor, before starting a SCUBA diving business that specialized in diving trips to the Sea of Cortez.
National Geographic Photographer
National Geographic photographer Ralph Lee Hopkins is the founder and
director of the Expedition Photography program for the Lindblad-National
Geographic alliance. For more than 20 years he has lead expeditions from the Arctic to Antarctica and points in between.
Expedition Leader
Russ Evans is a sixth-generation Falkland Islander now living in Orkney, Scotland. In 1997, he was drawn away from his work on the family farm by the lure of the sea. Since then, he has made his living at sea. As a licensed captain, Russ has been part of a variety of marine endeavors, including commercial tugs, dive boat support, scientific research, sightseeing tours, cruise ships, and since 2003, an expedition leader on expedition ships worldwide but specializing in the polar regions.