Women Explorers

Celebrating female explorers—then and now!

photo: Maya Santangelo

In honor of Women's History Month, we are recognizing women explorers— history-makers, storytellers, and Lindblad leadership—who have paved the way for generations to come.

History Makers

Bessie Cleveland Sweeney

When Lars-Eric Lindblad announced a citizen explorer trip to Antarctica in 1966, 86-year-old Bessie Sweeney was the very first to sign up for the adventure.

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Willowdean Chatterton Handy

When Willowdean Handy joined her husband, anthropologist Edward Handy, on an expedition to the Marquesas, she became fascinated by the art of tattoo. Her drawings of the islanders' intricate tattoos remain a key piece of documentation of one of the most important dimensions of Polynesian life.

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Jeanne Baret

Disguised as a male valet, Jeanne Baret traveled around the world with the French Navy in 1766, conducting groundbreaking botanical research alongside her lover until her secret was discovered. 

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Wanny Woldstad

While working as a taxi driver in Tromsø, Norway, Wanny Woldstad became captivated by her passengers' stories of hunting polar bears in the Arctic wilderness. In 1932, she decided to try it herself, becoming the first woman to work as a trapper in the Arctic. 

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Storytellers

Sarah Culler

While guests are immersed in the adventure aboard our National Geographic-flagged ships, Video Chronicler Sarah Culler is close at hand recording it all—and doing whatever it takes to not miss a thing.

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Sharon Grainger

Certified Photo Instructor Sharon Grainger has traveled around the world with Lindblad Expeditions, but her true expertise is with the culture, history, and nature of the Northwest Coast. 

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Sisse Brimberg

Sisse Brimberg has been taking photographs for National Geographic since 1976. While she admits that "you can't photograph history," she's an expert at making the past come alive through her work. 

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Jenny Kingsley

Through a variety of media, National Geographic Explorer Jenny Kingsley tells compelling personal stories that paint a diverse picture of modern culture in remote locations. 

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Ocean Explorers

Maya Santangelo

Maya Santangelo combines her passions for diving, science, and communication as an expedition diver for Lindblad. Whether she’s coming face-to-face with a leopard seal in Antarctica or gliding among massive manta rays in the South Pacific, Maya films these amazing undersea encounters and brings them to the surface to share with guests. 

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Alyssa Adler

Aboard our polar ships, Alyssa Adler provides guests with a glimpse of the astonishing wildlife below the ocean's surface. By highlighting surprising and lesser-known organisms, she hopes to inspire a fresh perspective and create a deeper understanding of the ocean and its inhabitants.

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Tierney Thys

For the past 15 years, Tierney Thys has been inspiring and educating guests aboard Lindblad ships, and as the former Director of Research for the Sea Studios Foundation she produced two PBS series, and she regularly shares her current projects via TED talks and through her longtime role as a National Geographic Explorer. 

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Naturalists

Elise Lockton

Elise Lockton has traveled around the world as a naturalist for Lindblad—leading trips in Alaska for two decades, searching for polar bears in Arctic Svalbard, exploring the ice and wildlife of Antarctica and South Georgia, and traveling the length of the Russian Far East coast.

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Ella Potts

When naturalist Ella Potts isn’t scanning the seas for life from the bow of our ships in places like Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Arctic, she’s busy with ongoing cetacean research projects and presenting public talks to an array of audiences.

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Annie Fiske

A Pacific Northwesterner at the cellular level, Annie Fiske grew up with a love for adventuring and the great outdoors—a love that served her well as a naturalist aboard our ships in Alaska. 

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Lindblad Leadership

Heidi Norling

Heidi Norling is the first woman to captain a Lindblad Expeditions ship. She's served as captain of National Geographic Orion since 2019. When National Geographic Resolution was christened in late 2021, Heidi was tapped to throw the champagne bottle. 

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Pamela Fingleton

When Sven Lindblad founded his own travel company in 1979, Pamela Fingleton was his very first employee. She remained with the company every step of the way until her retirement in 2021, wielding her perfect manners, native elegance, and sly sense of humor as effectively as any machete-hefting naturalist hacking through a jungle. 

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Stacy Rivett

One half of Stacy Rivett’s job is to connect the Lindblad ships’ Galleries and markets to the local craft cultures in the places we explore. The other half is running the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Artisan Fund. Through the Fund, Stacy is able to meet artisans and discover how we can support and help them—to better connect to the tourism industry that’s encroaching in their regions.

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Ana Esteves

As Vice President of Hotel Operations, Ana Esteves is responsible for the quality of the food program, and the galley staff, aboard our ships. Inspired by the lush beautify of the land while aboard our ships in Galápagos, Ana formed relationships with local farmers and subsequently launched a farm-to-table program in Galápagos. 

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Lynn Fowler

As the niece of celebrated naturalist Jim Fowler, exploration was in Lynn Fowler's blood. Among her roster of accomplishments, Lynn was expedition leader on the inaugural voyage of National Geographic Islander, in December 2004, and the ship was her exclusive home for the next 15 years. She continues to occasionally emerge from retirement to lead expeditions in the Galápagos. 

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Art & Science

Holly Fearnbach

Dr. Holly Fearnbach, one of the world’s foremost killer whale researchers, has worked to support the conservation of cetaceans—humpbacks, minke whales, dolphins, and more—in U.S. and international waters for more than 20 years.

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Zaria Forman

Zaria Forman is known for her beautiful and impeccably naturalistic pastel drawings, featuring images of glistening icebergs, turbulent arctic waters, and crashing waves inspired by remote landscapes and environmentally sensitive locations. As curator of Change, the climate-change-inspired art exhibition on board National Geographic Endurance, she has assembled works that examine and express response to vulnerable polar geographies.

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Kathy Sullivan

Kathryn Sullivan's storied career—as a geologist, a former NASA astronaut, and a NOAA scientist—has taken her from the far reaches of outer space to the bottom of the world’s oceans.

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Felicity Aston

British polar explorer Felicity Aston has led numerous expeditions to the most remote corners of the globe and championed women’s contributions to polar exploration, once leading the largest and most international team of women ever to ski to the South Pole.

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