Naturalists
Naturalists
There’s the naturalist who casually mentioned that he hadn’t been back to this remote Alaskan island since living here 20 years ago for a summer to study the familial habits of bears. Or the one who told you the last time he sailed past this South Pacific island a stranger ran out and began shooting a gun at them. Or the one who tells you she lived on that uninhabited Galapagos island for a year studying interactions between giant tortoises and introduced donkeys for her PhD while gathering rain and heavy mist for drinking and only occasionally bothering to wear clothes.
They are as different as their vast experiences and come from academic, natural history, museum, medical, and exploration backgrounds. Their specialistes—ranging from archeology to zoology—are tailored to every Lindblad Expedition to give guests a variety of interests and personalities to choose from while exploring. With an industry-leading ratio of 1 staff for every 10 guests (depending on ship size), Lindblad guests have the luxury of choosing which naturalist to explore with each day to indulge their interests and learning.
And the naturalists are much more than guides. They are engaging companions, participating fully in the expedition joining guests at meals and in the lounge over drinks. In fact, Lindblad guests consistently cite the expertise and engaging company of the naturalist staff as a key reason they return to the same ships to explore new regions.
There’s the naturalist who casually mentioned that he hadn’t been back to this remote Alaskan island since living here 20 years ago for a summer to study the familial habits of bears. Or the one who told you the last time he sailed past this South Pacific island a stranger ran out and began shooting a gun at them. Or the one who tells you she lived on that uninhabited Galapagos island for a year studying interactions between giant tortoises and introduced donkeys for her PhD while gathering rain and heavy mist for drinking and only occasionally bothering to wear clothes....
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Meet our Naturalists
Naturalist
Omar Adrian
Omar arrived at the Galapagos with his family when he just a year old. His father was a Naturalist in the islands and would take him exploring both on land and in the water, aboard the ships he was working on. At an early age, he learned all about the unique nature of the archipelago and the species that inhabit it. Omar got sea legs before getting land legs and being bare footed on the rocky Galapagos terrain was his natural way. He has happy memories of a childhood spent in Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz Island, where he went to an English language kindergarten and spent hours in the water and on the coralline sandy beaches abundant on the island. As he grew older, they moved to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, where continued with the rest of his education surrounded by the snow-capped Andes. They would return to the islands during summer vacations, however, and these visits grew longer as Omar grew up. He got to witness first-hand how his hometown grew from small rural village to commercial town. Eventually, Puerto Ayora got too big for the family’s tastes, so they moved to San Cristobal Island, the place that he considers home to this day. Omar became very interested in the development of society and cultural movements, so when the time came, he earned a degree in social communication and began to work as a journalist, in Quito. His final thesis for his degree was on the subject of “Reading in the Galapagos Islands”, looking at the fact that there are no bookstores in the Galapagos province, and what that meant for the population. He graduated in 2017 and entered the Galapagos National Park course for naturalist guides. He has also since become a professional diver and photographer, and has sailed thousands of nautical miles, learning, and teaching about the magical islands that he loves so much.
Naturalist
Mario Placidi
Mario Placidi Spring, Italian, has experienced outdoor life since childhood when he started moving his first steps as a mountaineer with his father. An Aerospace Engineer by education, he has soon quit his office job to embrace a life where his free spirit could wander and explore the precious nature of our planet. A freeride skier, climber and paragliding pilot, his interests also include astronomy, meteorology and everything related to the polar regions. Among his adventures is the solo climb of Cerro Aconcagua (6962 m), the ski descent of Mount Kazbek (5033 m, Caucasus range) and the crossing of part of the Tien Shan Range (Kazakhstan) by foot and paraglider. In 2014 he moved to Svalbard, Norway, where he attended, at the local University, a one-year study program called Arctic Nature Guide. There he had the chance to spend a winter in Longyearbyen and fall in love with the arctic nature. Since then, he has enjoyed about 600 days of work as an Expedition Guide and Leader in the Polar Regions (Svalbard, Greenland and Antarctica), his purpose being creating happiness among the people around him and encouraging them to pursue their dreams.
Naturalist
Sarah Keefer
Sarah’s fondest memories of nature are experiences she’s shared with friends—especially when those experiences involve spotting wildlife from the bow of a ship! She’s captivated by the wonders of the natural world, and it was the lure of expansive wilderness and exotic destinations that inspired her to study wildlife biology at both the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Hawai’i Honolulu. Sarah was first partial to mammalian studies, and it wasn’t until her first season as a field naturalist in Southeast Alaska that she began to truly appreciate watching birds and what they could teach us about patience, integrity, and hope. As a National Geographic Certified Field Educator, Sarah’s excited to encourage families and kids to express their innate curiosity by becoming explorers, storytellers, and responsible global citizens. She engages with other passionate communities through University of Minnesota programs on ecology, geology, botany, wildlife, biodiversity, and interpretation. She also advocates for habitat restoration, community stewardship through citizen science, and implementation of best practices for climate resiliency. When she isn’t on an expedition, you might find Sarah gazing up at the night sky, dog sledding along a winter trail, or chasing rainbows.
Naturalist
Kerstin Langenberger
Kerstin Langenberger is deeply in love with the Polar regions. Originally from Germany, she lived in Iceland for seven years where she graduated with a degree in environmental science. She later spent a year on Svalbard, Norway, where she became an Arctic nature guide. Since then, Kerstin has been working on expedition ships traveling to both polar regions and strives to be an ambassador for the rapidly changing ecosystems found there. The quote often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” sums up Kerstin’s drive to live a life centered around nature and conservation. In addition to being a hut warden and ranger in Iceland, she spent a year working in conservation in New Zealand and joined the crew of Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior in Scandinavia. Recently, she spent two summer seasons on the subantarctic island of South Georgia where she supported the important work of the South Georgia Heritage Trust. Kerstin also works as a professional nature photographer and lecturer. Her best-known photograph of an emaciated polar bear made millions of people reflect on climate change. Other works of hers have been published worldwide in numerous international magazines and nature photography competitions. She has written and photographed several books, given a TEDx talk, and continues to tour German-speaking countries with a very successful presentation on the European Arctic and climate change.
Naturalist
Alex Harper
Alex Harper is based in Southern Nevada, where he spends most of his time as a freelance naturalist, science communicator, birding guide, speaker, and writer. He serves on the board of directors for the Las Vegas-based Audubon chapter, as well as multiple committees for various organizations related to wildlife and habitat conservation. Alex did not imagine ending up in Las Vegas. He grew up between the mangrove bays and Florida Everglades in the Miami area. His free time as a kid was often spent getting bitten by lizards, climbing trees, and staining his clothes in estuarine mud. From an early age, he gravitated towards marine mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and birds. It would be birds that ultimately captivated his curiosity and became the primary focus of his interests. Over the course of his professional career, he has conducted bird population counts across the western United States for the National Park Service and the renewable energy industries, been a birding guide on the Pribilof Islands of Alaska and a remote Amazon lodge and counted migratory hawks in the Florida Keys. The desire to share the beauty of the natural world gets Alex out of bed in the morning. He believes that there is no shortage of opportunities to be moved by the natural world, to experience awe and wonder in it, and that it is through connecting people with nature that we can value it enough to preserve its functioning ecosystems. For this reason, he owns and operates Nature in Mind, a business that brings wellness and science together for kids and adults of all ages. Alex loves to swap stories and learn from his colleagues and Lindblad guests. Alex enjoys hiking, trail running, photography, reading, writing, and practicing mindfulness. He is grateful and proud to step foot on Lindblad ships to keep him wild.
Naturalist
Kylee Walterman
Kylee Walterman grew up in central California where she was in close proximity to the ocean, mountains, deserts, valleys, and national forests; this is where she found a passion for the natural world. She attained a Marine Science degree with a biology minor from CSU Monterey Bay and during that time, developed her love of outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding, diving, sailing, and photography. Kylee has done internships working in close contact with big cat species and in local rehabilitation centers, where she fell in love with birds of prey. Most recently she has been a naturalist and captain out of Monterey Bay running whale watching excursions where she’s conducted field interpretation during some incredible wildlife activity including orca predation events and mass migrations. She also has spent time traveling the PNW, B.C, Alaska, the Channel Islands and has studied in South Africa. Kylee has taken up an interest in connecting people to beautiful experiences and igniting the spirit of conservation. She takes every trip as a true adventure and believes the best part of an expedition is the unknown.
Naturalist
Julia Huggins
Julia grew up skiing, camping, and climbing in the mountains of Wyoming and sailing, sea kayaking, and tide pooling along the coast of Maine. She studied biology and environmental studies at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. As an undergraduate, she studied fungal ecology and soil chemistry in the Pacific Northwest old growth forests. Her work focused on how symbiotic relationships between trees, mushrooms, and soil bacteria drive ecosystem-level processes. This research in microbial ecology has brought her to remote corners of the world, including the rainforests of New Zealand, Patagonia, Ecuador, and Alaska. Julia is now working on her PhD in biogeochemistry at the University of British Columbia where she studies how chemical processes carried out by tiny microorganisms shape the global environment. Though her background is in forest ecology, she enjoys masquerading as an oceanographer in her current role as chief scientist on marine research expeditions in the Pacific Northwest. Julia is inspired by the complexity of interactions between microorganisms. She believes they hold the key to addressing many global challenges, such as adapting to climate change and cleaning up environmental contaminants. She loves whales, bears, and bald eagles, but she will probably be most excited about the rare variety of Usnea lichen on the tree branch next to the charismatic megafauna. Throughout her research career, Julia has combined her love of the outdoors with her work as an educator and naturalist. Julia was an intern with a program that teaches college-level biology courses on backcountry kayaking expeditions through Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage. She has also worked as a naturalist on backpacking trips in Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, and she is a co-founder of a non-profit that supports outdoor education for underprivileged youth. She believes deeply in the power of place-based education; sharing the things that inspire her about the natural world is the root of her motivation for research and science outreach.
Naturalist
Jason Blair
Even before earning a Bachelor of Science in both Geography and Environmental Studies from Aquinas College, Jason had a love for everything wild. Having grown up on the west coast of Michigan with its extensive forests, sand dunes, glaciated landscapes, and waterways, he knew he would seek a future in maritime and wildlife. In Mendocino, California, he studied coho salmon, which contributed to extending the protection of the redwood forest. From there he taught elementary and middle school students in the national parks and became the principal investigator of intertidal zones in the Marin Headlands, a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He then conducted research with Golden Gate Cetacean Research in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, specifically on whales and sea lions. When not working with Lindblad, you can find him staffing the biology labs of North Central Michigan College on the shores of Lake Michigan. Familiar with how both geology and biology shape landforms in the seascape, Jason is excited to enhance your understanding of the dynamic forces of nature at work during your expedition.
Naturalist
Erland Folstad
Born in Norway, Erlend has been attracted to nature and wildlife since he was a young man. He started exploring nature early while backcountry skiing, hiking, and hunting in the Norwegian wilderness. He started his professional career as a police officer with a special responsibility for search and rescue, and supervision of hunting in Åndalsnes, in the fjords of Norway. From 1996 until 2004, Erlend worked for the governor of Svalbard as chief inspector supervising search and rescue, and wildlife and nature protection. During his years in Svalbard, Erlend spent many days on field work and expeditions, both in summer and winter. His work brought him to every corner of Svalbard and he also organized and spent time as an expedition leader for kayaking, mountaineering, and skiing expeditions in the archipelago. Erlend has a great passion for the Arctic and has been on expeditions every year since 2004 to Svalbard either as a guide, or on private tours. The last two years he has been a part of the Lindblad Expeditions–National Geographic team and has shared his passion with the guests. His enthusiasm for Svalbard also includes a great interest in the polar history of Norwegian explorers and hunters. Erlend lives with his family in Aalesund surrounded by the majestic Sunnmøre Alps and Geirangerfjord and Hjørundfjord, two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. When not working as the CEO of Nord Helikopter he spends his time exploring the fjords and surrounding mountains.
Naturalist
John Pailthorpe
John spent the early years of his life in London, before an inspirational teacher took him to the highlands of Scotland on a school adventure trip. From then on the natural world has been his passion. After teacher training in Bangor, North Wales, John began a thirty-year career in outdoor education centres and schools, teaching and leading children and adults in such pursuits as mountaineering, rock climbing, kayaking, and sailing throughout the U.K. and Europe. During this time John took time out to be part of six polar scientific expeditions, as a field assistant/guide. Two of these were with the British Antarctic Survey; the first a two-month field expedition to the Eklund Islands on the Antarctic Peninsula; the second, eight months as part of a king penguin and elephant seal study on South Georgia. He served as a boat skipper/field guide on a geological expedition to the northwest of Svalbard. More recently, he took part in three expeditions to the Greenland ice cap for the Scott Polar Research Institute of Cambridge, as part of the European Space Agency's “Cryosat” project. John is well aware that his career, and the wonderful experiences it has included, all began with one special teacher. With this in mind, he likes nothing more than to pass on his enthusiasm for nature and all things outdoors, with the intention of promoting an awareness and caring attitude towards the natural environment.
Naturalist
Oren Frey
Oren grew up exploring the wilds of New England and began leading others on adventures in the outdoors while a student at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has spent the better part of the past two decades pursuing opportunities to explore the world and to share its wonders with others. Oren has worked as a naturalist and kayak guide in the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, and the San Juan Islands, has led many river trips, and has worked as an instructor on wilderness travel and cultural exchange trips for youth in locations from Alaska to Ecuador. Years working as an environmental educator on Catalina Island sparked a deep love of the ocean environment and inspired him to complete a master’s degree in International Environmental Policy with a focus on marine issues. He went on to work for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and co-founded a community supported fishery. Oren later spent five years managing a non-profit program that aims to make outdoor adventure inclusive and accessible to all people. An avid adventure cyclist, he has cycled over the Pamir Highway, around Iceland, and across the Sahara. Oren is thrilled to have the opportunity to share the joy of exploration with Lindblad Guests.
Naturalist
Shannon Malone
Growing up along the coastal environment of San Diego, Shannon started her first volunteer job at a local nature center at the age of six. Since then, she has built her personal life and professional career around connecting with nature. She received her degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she participated in kelp forest ecology research, outdoor education programs (in Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands), as well as a thesis in Fisheries Management. She continued her journey to Maui, Hawaii, where she led sailing and snorkeling tours. Inspired by the wonders of the Humpback whales in Hawaii, she migrated with the whales to Juneau, Alaska as a whale watching and hiking naturalist. In 2019, she completed a lifelong dream to travel South and Central America, where she volunteered at eco-lodges and natural farms with local families to find a deeper connection to the cultures, people, ecosystems, and the Spanish language. Shannon has found great joy in traveling and providing experiences that inspire and educate guests, leaving them with an unforgettable sense of connection to the unique places visited. She currently resides in Maui, where she continues to facilitate sailing excursions and work with local Humpback whale research groups.
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