Expedition Team Directory

Browse our directory of expedition team members who will join us on upcoming expeditions.

By Expertise
  • Expedition Leader
  • Naturalist
  • Undersea Diving
  • National Geographic Photography Expert
By Destination
  • Alaska
  • Galápagos
Expedition staff are subject to change.

Our Team

National Geographic Photography Expert icon National Geographic Photography Expert

Jen Hayes

Underwater photographers David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes are married partners who work together as a team to produce National Geographic stories from equatorial coral reefs to beneath the polar ice. David estimates he has spent nearly half his life in the sea since taking his first underwater photograph at the age of 12 with a Brownie Hawkeye camera sealed in a bag. Between them, Jennifer and David have photographed and explored the ocean depths in such places as New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Tasmania, Scotland, and Antarctica. David has photographed stingrays, sponges, and sleeping sharks in the Caribbean, as well as shipwrecks in the South Pacific, the Atlantic, and at Pearl Harbor. He has produced more than 70 stories for National Geographic magazine and several books, and has received the Explorers Club’s prestigious Lowell Thomas Award and the Lennart Nilsson Award in Photography.  

National Geographic Photography Expert icon National Geographic Photography Expert

Nick Cobbing

Photojournalist and filmmaker Nick Cobbing aims to highlight themes of science and natural history through personal stories. A native of the United Kingdom, Nick frequently works in Antarctica and the Arctic, and has accompanied scientists on research expeditions based on icebreaker ships or even camped on the Arctic ice. His story on the future of Arctic sea ice appeared in the January 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine. He has also worked for media brands like GEO (Germany), The Sunday Times Magazine, and the BBC . Nick’s work has been exhibited and screened worldwide in galleries and at festivals, as well as to policymakers in the U.S. Congress and the Stockholm Parliament.  He has won many awards for his photography and short films, including from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year, and American Photography. Nick’s films have been commissioned by Look3 Festival of Photography and National Geographic, and he is a contributor to @NatGeo, a book and exhibition featuring the most popular photos from National Geographic’s iconic Instagram account. He teaches regularly in Antarctica, Norway, and the Arctic, using the camera to connect students with the landscape and themselves.

National Geographic Expert

Lauren Eckert

Lauren Eckert a conservation scientist, adventure enthusiast, and PhD candidate at the University of Victoria. Her early research experiences around the globe exposed her to the complexities of interrelated social and ecological systems and motivated me to delve into conservation science that recognizes humans' important role in global ecosystems, engages communities directly, and supports Indigenous Nations reasserting their knowledge and rights. Lauren's MSc work, supported in part by The National Geographic Society, bridged Indigenous knowledge and ecological science through a community-engaged, Indigenous-led approach to conservation in partnership with Central Coast First Nations in their territories (often known as the Great Bear Rainforest). Her current research interests include: the intersections of Indigenous and western sciences, Canadian environmental policy, human-wildlife relationships (with a focus on human-bear relationships), and ultimately, conservation conflicts and collaborative ways to transform them. Lauren is also an avid storyteller, Canada Vanier Scholar, Raincoast Conservation Fellow, National Geographic Explorer, dog mom, avid hiker and peanut butter aficionada.

National Geographic Photography Expert icon National Geographic Photography Expert

Jonathan Kingston

National Geographic photographer, climber and diver Jonathan Kingston is a visual storyteller passionate about supporting scientific research and documenting the natural history and human story of our world through photography.  From arresting photographs of vibrant tribal dances to underwater scenes of elephants swimming at sea to 3-D photogrammetric models of submerged archaeological sites, Jonathan’s penchant for travel and love of the wild have taken him to some of the most remote and unmapped corners of the globe.  His work has appeared in print and online in National Geographic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal. A passionate teacher, Jonathan taught a National Geographic Photo Camp on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana in 2016. This program uses photography to help young adults and children in underserved communities around the world to develop their own voices and tell their stories. More recently, as part of a National Geographic Society grant in the summer of 2018, Jonathan and an international team of marine archaeologists from the United States, Mexico, Spain, and Canada began searching for the remains of Hernán Cortés' fleet scuttled in the Gulf of Mexico in 1519. Along with documenting the expedition, he used underwater and aerial photogrammetry to support the archaeological exploration. In 2012 he participated in an expedition that helped uncover the Encarnación, a 17th century Spanish shipwreck off the coast of Panama – its well preserved cargo gave a rare glimpse into a major shift in world history during the colonial era. Jonathan has received multiple honors from the prestigious Communication Arts and PDN Photo Annual competitions.  National Geographic Creative and the National Geographic Fine Art Galleries represent his work.

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Annie Griffiths

One of the first women photographers to work for National Geographic, Griffiths has photographed in more than a hundred countries during her illustrious career.  She has worked on dozens of magazine and book projects for the National Geographic Society, including stories on Lawrence of Arabia, Baja California, Galilee, Petra, Sydney, New Zealand, and Jerusalem. In addition to her magazine work, Griffiths is deeply committed to photographing need around the world.  She is founder and executive director of Ripple Effect, a collective of photojournalists who are documenting the programs that help poor women deal with the effects of climate change.  Griffiths is a Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers.  Known for her warmth and for her ability to create photographs that humanize situations and cultures, Griffiths is one of the National Geographic Speakers Bureau's most popular lecturers.  Griffith’s work has also appeared in Life , GEO , Smithsonian , Stern , Time , and many other publications.  With author Barbara Kingsolver, she produced Last Stand: America’s Virgin Lands , a book celebrating the last pristine wilderness in North America.  Proceeds from the book have raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for grassroots land conservation.  In 2008, Griffiths published A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel , a photo memoir about balance and the joy of creating a meaningful life.  Her newest book, Simply Beautiful Photographs , was published in October 2010.  Griffiths has received awards from the National Press Photographers Association, the Associated Press, the National Organization for Women, the University of Minnesota, and the White House News Photographers Association.   She lives in Great Falls, Virginia, with her two children.

National Geographic Photography Expert icon National Geographic Photography Expert

David Doubilet

For more than half his life David Doubilet has spent his days underwater. Doubilet took his first underwater photograph off the Jersey Shore when he was 12 years old, using a Brownie Hawkeye camera sealed in a rubber bag. Searching for brighter colors and more varied marine life than the continental U.S. could offer, Doubilet set his sights on the third largest barrier reef in the world, set off the coast of Andros Island in the Bahamas. There he spent his summers leading dives and photographing marine life. Doubilet shot his first story for National Geographic as a junior at Boston University in 1969. Arguably the leading underwater photographer in the world, Doubilet has shot over 60 stories for National Geographic . Exploring remote atolls, barrier reefs, and exotic marine life, Doubilet has introduced generations to a largely hidden world. Prized as much for their scientific value as their aesthetic beauty, his photographs are celebrated worldwide. Honors include the prestigious Sara Prize (1969); the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award (2000); and the Lennart Nilsson Award (2001). He is a member of the International Diving Hall of Fame in the Cayman Islands and an honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of London. In 2001 Doubilet was named a National Geographic Society contributing photographer-in-residence. This program was created to showcase and support the work of some of the world’s preeminent photojournalists. Fieldwork conducted by Doubilet during his residency will be supported by and conducted under the banner of the Society.

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