Dr. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall set out to Tanzania in 1960 to study wild chimpanzees. She immersed herself in their lives, bypassing more rigid procedures to make discoveries about primate behavior that have continued to shape scientific discourse. A highly respected member of the world scientific community, she advocates for ecological preservation through the Jane Goodall Institute.

Costas Christ

Costas Christ is Editor At Large for National Geographic Traveler and a member of the National Geographic Editorial Council. His articles and essays have appeared in some of the world’s leading publications, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, and Sunday Times of London. He serves as Chairman of the National Geographic Travel World Legacy Awards, which honor the travel companies and destinations that are leading the way forward in helping to protect natural and cultural heritage. He has appeared as an expert to talk about travel trends and emerging destinations on Travel Channel, Good Morning America, CNN, BBC World, ABC News, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Weekend and National Public Radio, among others. When not traveling, he lives on an organic farm in Maine.

Judy Kepher Gona

Judy Kepher-Gona Judy is the Founder of Sustainable Travel & Tourism Agenda, an organisation that uses education, research, advocacy, and training to promote sustainable tourism as a quality management system. She has over over 20 years’ experience working with tourism sector, community based tourism, and community conservation. She holds an MA in Rural Sociology & Community Development from University of Nairobi Kenya, Judy has built her career in tourism around community based tourism and conservation, certification and sustainability assessment, and social impact assessment. Judy has served as a judge of WTTCl Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, onsite evaluator for Nat Geo Unique Lodges of the World and World Legacy Awards, as judge for IIPT Awards and co-chair of Africa Tourism Leadership Awards. She previously served in TIES and GSTC boards and is current board member of Fair Trade Tourism. In 2019, she was awarded the Sustainable Citizen Award by Forbes Woman Africa.

Gary Knell

Gary E. Knell is Chairman of National Geographic Partners, the global joint venture owned by The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society, which includes National Geographic television, print and digital assets and related activities in travel and consumer products.

From 2014 through February 2018, Knell served as President and CEO of the National Geographic Society where he oversaw the Society’s vast nonprofit activities in science, exploration, education and media innovation.

Melissa Matlow

Melissa is the Campaign Director for World Animal Protection. Since 2005, she has worked with World Animal Protection to protect the welfare of animals — wild and domestic — in Canada and around the world. As part of their “Wildlife, Not Entertainers” campaign, she works with travel companies to implement animal welfare policies and remove wildlife entertainment from their supply chain.

Dr. Rachel Dodds

Dr. Rachel Dodds is a Professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She is the past Director of the Hospitality and Tourism Research Institute. Rachel has over 20 years of tourism experience working with tour operators, destination management companies, accommodation facilities, festivals and non profit organizations and still works actively with industry in her role as a consultant to help the tourism industry more sustainable.  Her recent research examines sustainable tourism, environmental management, festivals, marketing and tourist motivations. Prior research has focused on corporate social responsibility, islands and tourism policy. Rachel has published hundreds of articles about sustainable tourism and is internationally regarded as an expert in this field. She is currently editing a book on Overtourism with Professor Richard Butler. She has lived and worked in four continents and travelled to over 80 countries.

Johnathan Tourtellot

Tourtellot is a consultant, speaker, editor, writer, and photographer specializing in sustainable tourism and destination stewardship. He originated the concept of the geotourism approach – “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.”

Johnathan works to help destinations and NGOs combine tourism, stewardship, and a sense of place into a sustainable strategy.  He runs the nonprofit Destination Stewardship Center and writes for National Geographic Voices. For National Geographic Traveler Magazine, Tourtellot has written articles about resort sprawl, climate change, ecotourism, heritage travel, and tourism impacts, including the award-winning “The Two Faces of Tourism” and “The Tourism Wars.”

Elizabeth Becker

Elizabeth Becker, is an award winning journalist and author of “OVERBOOKED: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism,” the first examination of the trillion dollar global tourism industry, exposing the costs and hazards behind everyone’s favorite past time. It was an Amazon book of the year. The New York Times called it “a meticulously reported and often disturbing expose of the travel industry.”

Meenu Vadera

Meenu is the founder of Sakha Consulting Wings. She has a deep-seated commitment to women’s rights and development. Women on Wheels is an effort by her to ensure a life of dignity and socio-economic freedom for women. A hybrid enterprise, Azad (a non-profit) and Sakha (a for-profit) is a unique social enterprise, launched to provide safe transport solutions for women, by women, in urban India while providing livelihoods with dignity to resource-poor women. She is master’s graduate of London School of Economics in social policy and planning,

Bruce Poon Tip

Lek Chailert

Sangduen “Lek” Chailert was born in 1962 in the small hill tribe village of Baan Lao, two hours north of Chiang Mai. Her love for elephants began when her grandfather, a traditional healer, received a baby elephant as payment for saving a man’s life. Lek would spend many hours with her family’s new friend, named Tongkum or Golden One, which would result in a passion that would shape the rest of her life.

Lek received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Chiang Mai University, and from there moved into working in the elephant tourist industry. While helping owners of trekking companies locate unemployed elephants, Lek quickly learned about the abuse and neglect that domestic Asian elephants experience.

With a love and respect for her country’s national symbol and the knowledge that they were becoming endangered, Lek began advocating for the rights and welfare of Asian elephants in Thailand. In an industry that is steeped in its traditions, advocating for a change to the way domestic and wild Asian elephants are treated has not been an easy battle. But through hard work and determination her voice is beginning to be heard.

In addition to several documentaries about her work by National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet, and the BBC, Lek has also been honored to receive many awards. In 2005, Time Magazine named her a Hero of Asia for her work in conservation. The Ford Foundation in association with National Geographic named Lek a Hero of the Planet in 2001. Additionally, she has received two honorary degrees from Rajabaht Chiang Mai University; a PhD in Sustainability and Conservation in 2002, and a PhD in Veterinary Science in 2006. Finally, the National Geographic documentary Vanishing Giants, highlighting Lek’s work with the Asian elephant, was recognized by the Humane Society of the United States with the Genesis Award in 2003.

In the coming years Lek hopes to bring her message about conservation and the humane treatment of Asian elephants to more people in and outside of Thailand. She will also continue to improve the lives of the rescued elephants living at Elephant Nature Park and provide emergency healthcare to elephants in remote villages throughout Thailand.

Delfin Pauchi

Delfin and his family have owned and operated a traditional homestay in the Amazon basin of Ecuador since 1993. Delfin is a Yachac – a mid level spiritual leader and medicine advisor. The homestay, called ‘Pimpilala’, means butterfly as there are many Morfo Butterflies in the area.  With his guests, Delfin shares indigenous wisdom and traditional knowledge using the plants, trees, and fruits of the jungle for medicinal healing.

Francisca Qquerar Mayta

Francisca is the founder of the Caccaccollo Women’s Weaving Cooperative. Since 2005, travelers have visited the Ccaccaccollo community to learn about their traditional weaving process: hand-spinning the wool, dying the wool using natural dyes, and participating in a weaving demonstration. Travellers are given the opportunity to purchase high quality textiles directly from the women who made them. Today, more than 55 women are part of the association, constantly learning new methods of production to make items that our travellers find useful for their trips, while also maintaining the traditional weaving methods to produce textiles made from llama and alpaca wool. Over 1000 travelers now visit the weaving co-op each month.