Based in Fort Collins, Colorado (the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute Nations and Peoples), Alex is a climate change resilience specialist, photographer, and educator who works across North America, Asia, and the Pacific. From documenting illegally trafficked products of the wildlife trade to supporting governments and communities in adapting and building resilience to climate change, he has honed a unique skill set and approach to science-informed storytelling, climate change resilience, and empowering youth on their journey to create a better world. His passion for connecting with people, places, and stories have taken him to over 20 countries documenting the interactions between the environment and human lives, and supporting solutions that work for both. He has contributed to a variety of publications including the American Scholar, The New Yorker Climate Crisis Newsletter, and Grist; and his collaborations include the IUCN, the Commission on Environmental Cooperation, the U.S. Department of Defense, Adaptation International, and the American Society of Adaptation Professionals, among others. He has led two student expeditions to Nepal with National Geographic, as well as instructed at the inaugural Harvard Chan C-CHANGE Youth Summit. Alex also loves music, and stays active as a jazz pianist in Northern Colorado.

Alex has worked as an environmental policy advocate, wildlife rehabilitator, and veterinary technician, but her greatest passion is science education. Whether in a classroom or in the field, Alex aims to inspire curiosity and conservation of native flora and fauna. Alex earned an M.S. in ecology and evolution and an M.Ed. in science education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focused on the social and ecological impacts of pollinators in urban areas. Alex also worked for the Learning Sciences Research Institute while at UIC, exploring the use of technological applications in science education. One of her favorite projects involved engaging middle school students in investigations of backyard wildlife diversity and behavior using camera traps. Alex spent the past six years living in the Virgin Islands, where she taught IB Biology and IB Environmental Systems and Societies courses emphasizing conservation of the Caribbean’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Alex has also written and edited educational material for National Geographic Education, including lessons and activities for projects such as “Encounter: Ocean Odyssey,” and “safariLIVE.” She is fluent in Spanish and has led Putney Student Travel and National Geographic programs in Belize, Baja California Sur, Ecuador and the Galápagos, Costa Rica, Australia, Tanzania, Namibia, the Canadian Arctic, and Botswana.

Born and raised in Costa Rica, Chris is a widely traveled biologist, naturalist, illustrator, and environmental educator. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and before graduating from college he gave presentations on wildlife with various Costa Rican conservation groups and worked as a naturalist for the Organization for Tropical Studies’ La Selva and Las Cruces biological research stations. He also worked as a research technician for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, collecting data on habitat conditions and performing radio-telemetry surveys for the northern spotted owl project. Chris has co-taught field ecology courses in Belize and Guatemala for the Sierra Institute, formerly at Humboldt State University. He co-authored two books on Costa Rican natural reserves, and natural history comic strips that appeared in The Tico Times newspaper and in one issue of Ranger Rick Magazine. Other projects included illustrations on field guides and wildlife coloring books. More recently, he worked as the Outreach Coordinator at Wolf Haven International, educating about wolves and big carnivores. Chris currently works as Education Coordinator at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary (part of Mass Audubon), creates educational material for the Wolf Education and Research Center, and teaches as local naturalist for the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute’s courses in Costa Rica. Chris has led Putney Student Travel and National Geographic programs to Namibia, Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands, the Pacific Northwest, Australia, Brazil, Belize, the Canadian Arctic, and Botswana.

While pursuing her undergraduate degrees in photography and art history at Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Erica traveled to Guatemala to study Mayan art and architecture. While there, she collaborated with a local artist to paint a mural at the youth center in Antigua and also completed a photography project about the women artisans of the local weaving cooperative. After earning her BFA, she continued to travel through Central and South America, creating visual storytelling projects. Her landscape and portraiture photography has been exhibited in solo and group art exhibitions throughout the US as well as in online and print publications. She developed a passion for working with youth in arts-based community and museum programs in Boston, which led her to pursue her Master of Arts in Teaching from Tufts University. Erica is currently a freelance photographer and a visual art/photography instructor at a high school north of Boston as well as at The Danforth Art Museum. She has previously led travel programs and photography workshops, including Putney Student Travel and National Geographic programs, in the U.S., Croatia, Ecuador, Italy, Germany, and Iceland. Besides photography and travel, Erica enjoys cooking new recipes and hiking, biking, and swimming.

Himraj is the co-founder and producer at The Outdoor Journal, an international adventure travel multimedia organization. He writes, shoots, and covers international travel destinations, conservation issues, extreme adventure sports, athletes, gear, brands, maps, and more. His work has also been published in Vogue, Vice, Runner’s World, National Geographic Traveller India, Reader’s Digest UK, Conde Nast Traveler, and The Outdoor Journal. An avid skier and climber, his expeditions have taken him to Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Borneo, Madagascar, Peru, Morocco, Namibia, Argentina, Chile, Siberia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. He was a team member on the International Antarctic Expedition, studying climate change and sustainability. Himraj is fluent in Hindi and has led Putney Student Travel and National Geographic programs in India, Peru, Nepal, Namibia, New Zealand, Tanzania, and Morocco.

While at Columbia College Hollywood, focusing on cinematography and directing, Jahmel received the coveted AMPAS grant from the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, the organization that presents the Oscar Awards. This grant allowed him to intern as a production assistant on commercials and television shows with a nationally acclaimed production company. Since graduation, Jahmel has produced and directed promotional content for a variety of notable artists, including Grammy award-winning artist Quincy Jones, Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith, Enrique Iglesias, Pharrell Williams, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, John Legend, Dr. Dre, Anderson Paak, Ashley Graham, Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled, and Oprah Winfrey. In 2014 Cru, a feature film he co-produced, made history at the illustrious American Black Film Festival (ABFF) by sweeping the field and winning five awards, including Best Film. Since 2013 Jahmel has also provided production services for industry giants such as Netflix, Amazon, and the Viacom family (Nickelodeon, MTV, BET), to list a few. In 2017 and 2018, he traveled to London, Paris, Iceland, and Morocco to shoot, edit, and direct the travel docu-series “Black Girl Khronicles,” released in 2018 and 2019. Then in 2019, Jahmel traveled across Colombia to strengthen his intermediate Spanish and participate in community service initiatives. He has led Putney Student Travel Pre-College programs, as well as trips to Iceland and photography workshops in Yellowstone. Besides travel and film production, Jahmel loves curating art events and creating art installations.

While at San Francisco State University earning her bachelor’s degree in photojournalism, Jana completed internships at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Kathmandu Post in Nepal. After college, she contributed to a variety of publications worldwide, including Reuters, as a freelance photojournalist. Jana has traveled and lived in more than 30 countries but she also regularly returns home to the Czech Republic, where she has produced ongoing projects that capture the highlights of Czech culture. Jana writes articles to accompany her photography and dedicates most of her time to international reporting and storytelling. She collaborates with nonprofit organizations to document humanitarian efforts all around the world. In the past years she has been working in the Philippines, Nepal, India, Myanmar, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Jana’s photography has won numerous awards, including World Press Photo, National Geographic’s 2010 Photo Contest, Czech Press Photo, China Press Photo, and others. She is a passionate adventurer and outdoors enthusiast. Her main passions include Shotokan karate, swimming in the cold waters of the San Francisco Bay and Japanese green tea of which preparation she is annoyingly particular about. She has led Putney Student Travel programs in Belize, Italy, and Greece, and National Geographic programs in Bhutan, India, and the Czech Republic.

Larson is a Brooklyn-based documentary photographer, teacher, and adventurer. He is the Photo Lab and Facilities Manager for the darkrooms, digital labs, and class facilities at the International Center of Photography, and teaches in-studio and on-location photography classes for children and adults in New York. In his own work, he practices wet plate collodion photography using an 1850s photo chemical process that makes one-of-a-kind images on tin plate or glass. Larson has led workshops for the Canon Photography in the Parks program, teaching photography and video across the continental U.S. He has also led National Geographic programs in San Francisco, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Colorado, Switzerland, France, Australia, China, Bali, New Zealand, the Canadian Arctic, and Iceland.

Leonardo has over 13 years of teaching experience in higher education at The Ohio State University, where he teaches multimedia journalism, photojournalism, visual communication design, and user-centered design for the School of Communication. He has a passion for traveling and teaching photography in the field to students. While earning his master’s degrees at OSU and OU, Leonardo traveled to several Spanish-speaking countries to photograph people, festivals, and culture. During his travels, he has been on a Portuguese fishing boat, with Andean Mountain communities, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, with Irish farmers, and on many other travel adventures. He continues to do independent photography work for national and international publications, documenting the human condition, diverse cultures, and conservation. Leonardo is a native Spanish speaker and has general conversation Portuguese language skills. He has led Putney Student Travel programs in Baja California Sur and Ecuador, and National Geographic programs in Mexico, Portugal, the Canadian Arctic, Iceland, Ireland, Ecuador, Peru, and Barcelona, Spain. In the fall, Leonardo will go back to teaching at The Ohio State University and have a photography exhibition on Ecuador.

While at Boston University, Lisa studied English literature and photojournalism and served as a teaching assistant for photojournalism courses. She spent a semester abroad at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, where she volunteered for the Kayamandi Project, tutoring underprivileged primary school students, and for Cheetah Outreach, educating visitors about cheetah conservation. Since 2004, she has worked as a visual journalist for newspapers, magazines, and wire services worldwide. She focuses her work on women’s issues, human rights, and the impacts of climate change. Her photos have won numerous prizes, including first-place honors for the New England Associated Press News Association and the Boston Press Photographers Association. Lisa’s photographs have been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Time, and many other publications. In 2019, she received her Master of Journalism degree in documentary filmmaking from the University of California, Berkeley, where she produced an intimate and provocative 30-minute documentary about sex-trafficking and domestic abuse told through the eyes of one survivor. She also received a grant to produce a film titled “Losing Ground” about climate change in the Indian Sundarbans, which was published by The Atlantic. She founded Film Farm Productions in 2021 and is currently directing her first documentary feature film titled “Forty One” about the first female Marines to train at a military base in San Diego that had been all male for over 100 years. Lisa enjoys working with young people and has led Putney Student Travel and National Geographic programs for over a decade in Costa Rica, Tanzania, Maine, Alaska, India, Czech Republic, Fiji, Bali, Scotland, the Canadian Arctic, New Zealand, Cambodia, Croatia, and Iceland. Lisa is also a certified yoga instructor and avid surfer and rock climber.

Born and raised in Brazil, Mariela is a passionate traveler, educator, dive instructor, and biologist. Her PhD research focused on neglected tropical diseases, cellular and molecular biology, ecology, and marine biology. After completing her PhD in Brazil and London, she took a sabbatical and traveled by herself on a round-the-world trip, where she explored more than 30 countries and became a scuba dive instructor in Southeast Asia. Mariela spent two years in Thailand teaching diving courses and leading groups around islands to discover and learn about marine species and how to protect them. She also volunteered on marine conservation projects, such as the Coral Nursery, a program designed to develop coral colonies through fragmentation using techniques similarly used in reforestation. As part of her sabbatical she trekked solo, without porters or guides, to Everest Base Camp and Gokyo Lakes in Nepal, learning much about resilience and courage during her journey. For the past several years she has been teaching diving and leading travelers in numerous countries, and also working as a consultant and speaker, facilitating courses about leadership, empathy, vulnerability, diversity, equity, and inclusion to young leaders. In the last year Mariela started her own company, Maré Expedições, in Brazil, leading expeditions and outdoor education around the country, and being a courage-builder, helping women who want to travel the world. Mariela loves everything to do with traveling, conservation, languages, new cultures, and education. She believes in the power of vulnerability to connect and bring courage in people. She is fluent in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.

Originally from Germany, Nicole is a biologist, nature guide, and conservationist, and has lived in Ecuador for the past 17 years. During her time as a master’s student, she backpacked through Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia until her fascination with neotropical rainforests brought her to South America. She conducted her master’s thesis on the ecology of hummingbird pollination in Mindo, Ecuador, where she also worked as a bird guide after graduating. Together with her Ecuadorian husband, Nicole bought a private nature reserve in the montane rainforest near Mindo, and established a biological research station, named Un poco del Chocó. With her daily work as the reserve’s manager and research director, she combines her passions for conservation, education, and research. Nicole teaches tropical ecology courses to undergraduates, supervises research projects of university students, leads environmental education workshops for school children, and is actively involved in local conservation efforts. She also established a long-term bird monitoring project in her reserve and collaborates on various international research projects studying both resident and migratory bird species. As a certified bird bander, she participated in projects and courses in Brazil, Peru, England, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Israel, and she teaches bird banding workshops in Ecuador. In 2020, she enrolled again at university and is currently conducting her PhD research on avian life cycle phenology. Nicole is fluent in English, Spanish, and German. She is a licensed tour guide in Ecuador and has served as the local nature guide for Putney Student Travel and National Geographic programs in Ecuador since 2008. Nicole has led Putney programs in Ecuador and Canada, and National Geographic programs in Australia, Belize, Ecuador, Namibia, and Costa Rica.

Patrick is a conservation biologist with over 15 years of experience as a researcher, field biologist, and educator. As an undergraduate at St. Lawrence he received grants allowing him to pursue research in the Bahamas, where he studied recruitment in juvenile fish populations. As a senior, Patrick studied at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, focusing on conservation and development in East Africa. This experience would lead him back to Africa in 2009 as a PhD student in environmental science at Drexel University, studying amphibians and primates in Equatorial Guinea. Across his career he has worked as a fisheries biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Vermont, a marine ecology instructor in the Florida Keys, a guide and naturalist in Yellowstone National Park, an environmental education program director for the Grand Teton Lodge Company, and as an expedition leader/professor for Drexel University’s Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program. After graduating from Drexel in 2015, Patrick worked as a field specialist on a project to reintroduce captive-born pandas into the wild with the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding in China, and most recently as a post-doc with the Bristol Zoological Society leading a camera-trap monitoring program focused on gorillas and chimpanzees in Equatorial Guinea. Patrick has led Putney Student Travel and National Geographic programs in Australia, Bar Harbor Maine, Yellowstone and Montana, New Zealand, Tanzania, Namibia, the Pacific Northwest, Belize, Bali, Iceland, Costa Rica, and Alaska.

After finishing his dissertation at ETH Zurich on understanding global human mobility patterns, Trivik went on a self-supported filmmaking expedition to Ladakh, India, with National Geographic Young Explorer Tyler Wilkinson Ray. Together, they reported on a tribe of ultrarunners who deliver mail to the remotest parts of the Himalayan desert on foot. In addition to research in India and Europe, Trivik spent many years pursuing expedition climbing and photographing and later returned home to India to direct his passion for adventure photography, anthropology, and science into a technology-driven startup dedicated to sustainable travel and authentic journalism. He is now a Professor of Urban Policy at the Policy Analysis Institute of Delft University, The Netherlands, where he teaches and researches urban inequalities and citizen participation in decision making. Some of his work has been published in Nature and featured in MIT Technology Review and The Telegraph. He has led multiple National Geographic programs to the Canadian Arctic, Namibia, and India, and has traveled to many countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, and America for climbing, snowboarding, skydiving, and freediving.

While at Luther College, William focused on intercultural communications. As part of his studies, he lived and traveled extensively throughout Greater China, Southeast Asia, and Scandinavia, where he immersed himself in local culture, folk art, and languages. After earning his master’s degree in digital media, he relocated to Macau to work as a cinematographer for a TV production company. Through his work with various Chinese marketing and video production crews, he was introduced to Apple’s video podcasting team at their Shanghai Campus and brought onboard to support CEO Tim Cook during several of his visits to China. His passion for photography and video production has deepened his connection to Asia; specifically, Chinese-speaking countries. William is a native of Taiwan. He is fluent in Chinese, Hokkien, and English, and proficient in Cantonese and Norwegian. William has led numerous National Geographic and Putney Student Travel programs in China, Japan, Croatia, and Norway since 2012.