Our team is the key to your incredible adventure
Explore the Russian 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 them highly engaging and fun to share a drink or dinner with, as well as a hike.
Undersea Specialist
David has worked for Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic since 1993 on six continents and in over 65 countries. David is interested in many of the natural sciences, particularly ornithology, geology and marine biology; he most enjoys contrasting the broad perspectives provided by world travel with detailed investigations of local ecosystems on land and in the sea.
Naturalist
Doug Gualtieri has worked as a Naturalist interpretive guide for over 20 years, beginning his career in Denali National Park and Preserve at a remote wilderness lodge leading hikes and giving lectures on the ecology and wildlife of that region. Later he began leading Lindblad Expeditions land extensions to Denali in 2002 and has worked with Lindblad in some form or another ever since. With a background in Biology and a lifelong passion for the natural world Doug moved to Talkeetna, Alaska in 1999 from his home state of Michigan, and never looked back.
National Geographic Photographer
Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the small town of Tiksi, located on the shore of the Laptev Sea in Russia. In her photographic work, she often looks into her Arctic homeland, discovering and capturing the remote worlds and people who inhabit them. A contributing photographer to National Geographic magazine, she first covered a story on mammoth hunters—native people of Yakutia who excavate mammoth tusks from the thawing permafrost of the New Siberian Islands—that appeared in the April 2013 issue. Recently, for an October 2017 article, Evgenia migrated with nomadic reindeer herders on the Yamal Peninsula in the Russian Arctic to capture the impact of growing development of natural gas industry on the traditional lifestyle of Nenet indigenous people.
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.
Expedition Leader
Jimmy has been coordinating education and research teams for national universities, international non-government organizations, and documentary companies for more than 10 years. Jimmy’s expertise lies in the coordination and implementation of field education and remote area research.
Assistant Expedition Leader
Leah grew up in a small coastal town in the Pacific Northwest with Olympic National Park in her backyard, and it was here where her love of all things wild began. Ever since she ran around shipyards at an early age and watched her dad work in the marine trade, she has loved being near water.
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.
Naturalist
An ornithologist, photographer, fisherman, climber, and writer, Santiago Imberti was born and raised in southern Patagonia, Argentina. He obtained a degree in tourism and later in ornithology, which allowed him to combine his love for nature and the outdoors with his work as a birdwatcher, naturalist, fly fishing, and mountain guide. He has been guiding trips in Patagonia, the Antarctic, and Arctic for some 25 years.
Naturalist
Stefano is originally from Italy and nature has always been the greatest of his passions. Spending time outdoors is his daily priority with a special devotion rock climbing during summer, accompanied by ski and snowboarding during winter.