Speakers Bureau

Inspire, Challenge, Motivate

National Geographic Speakers Bureau represents the world’s boldest Explorers, scientists, photographers and storytellers. These tailor-made experiences inspire, challenge and motivate audiences — from dynamic corporate keynotes to unforgettable gala evenings. Contact us today to bring the world to your private event.

Available Speakers

Showing 9 of 92 results

Alex R. Hearn

Wildlife, Science

Alex Hearn is a marine ecologist who is researching whale shark migrations around the Galapagos Islands. He is a professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and the Galapagos Science Center. He is also a founding member and Board President of the regional research network, MigraMar, and in 2020 was named co-champion of the Mission Blue Galapagos Hope Spot. Alex's projects use acoustic and satellite telemetry to establish the migratory pathways of sharks at different times of the year in the southern Galapagos and coastal mainland Ecuador. He led a multi-institutional team of biologists to develop a blueprint for improved conservation outside the Galapagos Marine Reserve, which resulted in the creation of the new Hermandad Reserve in 2022. Alex's work has been featured in stand-alone documentaries and in the iconic Blue Planet II and Galapagos documentary series.

Alicia Odewale

Resilience, Culture, Storytelling

Alicia Odewale (Ware) was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is the great grandniece of Robert Ware, who attended Dunbar Grade School in Greenwood and survived the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921. She is also a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, a historically Black high school created during Oklahoma’s Jim Crow era and one of the few structures that survived the attack on Greenwood in 1921. She earned her college degrees at Westminster College and The University of Tulsa (TU), and in 2016 made history as the first person of African descent to receive a doctorate in anthropology at TU. She was also the first Black faculty member to join TU’s department of anthropology and today continues to work as an archaeologist and educator in Oklahoma, specializing in African Diaspora archaeology in the Caribbean and southeastern United States with a theoretical focus on community-centered, restorative justice, anti-racist and Black feminist archaeology. Since 2014, Odewale has been researching archaeological sites related to Afro-Caribbean heritage on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and since 2019 has been researching sites of Black heritage in her home state of Oklahoma. Her latest research project, “Mapping Historical Trauma in Tulsa from 1921-2021,” is co-created with other Tulsans and seeks to reanalyze historical evidence from the aftermath of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, launch new community-based archaeological investigations in the Historic Greenwood District, and use radical mapping techniques to visualize the impact of the massacre through time on the landscape of Greenwood. Odewale joined the National Geographic family in 2021 as a speaker with National Geographic Live through her show entitled “Greenwood: A Century of Resilience”. She also accepted the invitation to become a community leader through National Geographic’s 2892 Miles to Go: Geographic Walk for Justice Project. Both projects provide an opportunity for her to go beyond the classroom and share her research in new and innovative ways with the world. Her research interests include the archaeology of enslavement and freedom in urban contexts, Caribbean archaeology, rural and urban comparative analyses, community-based archaeology, ceramic analysis, transferware studies, mapping historical trauma from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, restorative justice and auto-archaeology, and investigations into different forms of anti-slavery resistance. She is also the co-creator of the Greenwood Archaeology Curriculum and the #TulsaSyllabus, an online resource guide that dives into the history and archaeology of Black enslavement, land ownership, anti-Black violence, and the rise of prosperous Black communities in Oklahoma. Her research has received awards and support from the National Geographic Society, the American Anthropological Association, the National Science Foundation, the Society of Historical Archaeology, the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, and the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS).

Aliyah Griffith

Resilience, Science, Teamwork, Leadership, Climate Change, Adventure

Dr. Aliyah Griffith is a marine scientist passionate about marine science communication and inclusivity. Focusing on coral reef resilience and management, her research experiences have taken her from the reefs of Moorea, French Polynesia, to the Caribbean coastlines of Barbados. In 2022, she became the first African-American to earn a graduate degree in marine science from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. In 2025, she became the first African American to receive a PhD from the same department. As the Founder of Mahogany Mermaids, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring children of color to engage in aquatic sciences, she has reached hundreds of children nationally with virtual and in-person events and resources. Passionate about inspiring future generations, she has authored a children’s book, My Secret Mermaid, showcasing careers in marine science and ocean exploration.

Alizé A. Carrère

Wildlife, Climate Change, Science

Alizé Carrère is a scientist and filmmaker researching and documenting human adaptations to climate change. She completed her Ph.D. in ecosystem science and policy at the University of Miami, where she examined the rise of “climatopias,” aspirational architecture and urban planning proposals for climate change. Prior to that, Carrère completed a Bachelor of Arts in environmental science and Master of Science in bioresource engineering at McGill University. During this time, she lived in Panama, Peru, France, and the Middle East, doing fieldwork on a range of human-environment interactions. After receiving a grant from National Geographic Society in 2013 to examine how farmers were unexpectedly adapting to severe deforestation in Madagascar, her work evolved into a broader film project on human resilience in the face of profound environmental change. Supported by additional grants from the National Geographic Society, The Redford Center and PBS, this culminated in a docuseries produced and hosted by Carrère for PBS Digital called ADAPTATION, covering adaptation stories in places such as Bangladesh, Ladakh, Vanuatu, and the United States. Her experiences have afforded her unique insights on the role of collaborative storytelling and the human dimensions of climate change.

Anand A. Varma

Science, Wildlife, Photography

Anand Varma is a National Geographic Explorer and award-winning photographer based in Berkeley, California. He has devoted years of his life to developing innovative techniques—even building some of his own equipment—to create intimate, dramatic and surprising images of nature. He holds a degree in integrative biology from University of California, Berkeley and uses photography to share the story behind the science on topics from honeybee health to hummingbird biomechanics. Varma has photographed numerous stories for National Geographic magazine, including the 2014 cover story, “Mindsuckers.” His accolades include TED speaker, World Press Photo Award, and Rita Allen Civic Science Fellow. Varma's ultimate goal is to spark a sense of wonder about our world. He sees the camera not just as a tool to capture what is visible, but as a way to illuminate the layers of beauty and complexity that are otherwise hidden from the naked eye.

Anastasia Taylor-Lind

Photography, Resilience, Storytelling, Teamwork, Adventure, Culture, Health

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is a British-Swedish photojournalist who has contributed to National Geographic magazine and other leading editorial publications. She is also an author, poet, TED Fellow and 2016 Harvard Nieman Fellow. Taylor-Lind has worked in Ukraine for over a decade, covering issues relating to women, war and violence. Her first book, "MAIDAN - Portraits from the Black Square," documents the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution and was published by GOST Books the same year. Her poetry focuses on contemporary conflicts and the experiences she cannot photograph. In 2022, her first collection, "One Language," was published in the U.K. by Smith|Doorstop. In 2023, she received the Canon Female Photojournalist Award for her long-term reporting from eastern Ukraine, and over 100,000 people visited her exhibition 'Ukraine: Photographs from the Frontline' at the Imperial War Museum.

Andrés Alfonso Ruzo

Science, Conservationism, Climate Change

Andrés Ruzo is a geothermal scientist, conservationist, educator, host, author and science communicator best known for his work at the Boiling River of the Amazon. He holds degrees in geology and finance, and will soon finish his Ph.D. in Earth sciences focusing on geothermal studies. Ruzo is a National Geographic Explorer and has been on multiple Society-funded grants. He is the host of an award-winning NatGeo Latin America television show, "Misterios del Inframundo" (Mysteries of the Underworld). His work has been featured on various National Geographic media outlets including the magazine, television channels, website and social media, as well as branded partnerships with BMW, LEGO, and Coors Light. Ruzo grew up between Peru, Nicaragua and the United States, and is currently based between Miami, U.S. and Lima, Peru. While doing research for a National Geographic Society-funded project, Ruzo investigated a detail in a childhood legend he heard as a boy in Lima about a mysterious "river that boiled" in the heart of the jungle. This legendary river proved to be real and in 2011, Ruzo became the first geoscientist granted the shamanic blessing to study it. Flowing hot for nearly four miles (over six kilometers), nearly 15 feet deep (about 4.5 meters) at its deepest point, and almost 100 feet wide (about 30 meters) at its widest point-- the Boiling River is currently the world's largest documented thermal river, even though it is over 430 miles (over 700 miles) away from the nearest active volcanic center. Ruzo is the founder and director of the Boiling River Project, a nonprofit aimed at understanding, protecting and bringing value to the Boiling River, the Amazon and unique geothermal systems across the globe. Through the Boiling River Project, he works to turn the Boiling River area into a mecca of scientific investigation and has played active roles in research from various fields of geoscience, botany, biology, microbiology, anthropology, linguistics, ethno-history, shamanism, conservation economics, wildlife trafficking and sustainable tourism. He engages in Indigenous and local empowerment work in the Central Peruvian Amazon through educational and sustainable economic initiatives. Beyond his Amazonian work, Ruzo is also heavily involved in K-12 and university level education.

Andy Mann

Storytelling, Photography, Wildlife, Climate Change, Adventure

Andy Mann is an experienced climber, diver, and filmmaker whose imagery helps tell the story of our rapidly changing planet, documenting scientific expeditions on all seven continents. He is the co-founder and director at 3 Strings Productions and is a founding member of the Sea Legacy Collective with Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier. He now spends more than 100 days each year at sea documenting cutting-edge marine science.

Ariel Waldman

Adventure, Climate Change, Leadership, Science, Space, Storytelling

Ariel Waldman is a National Geographic Explorer and filmmaker. Her expeditions take her from tallgrass prairies and deep-sea canyons to the icy realms of Antarctica. In these remarkable places, she films otherworldly life beneath the surface, including the extraordinary lives of microscopic animals. Waldman is the creator and host of "UNEARTHED," an ongoing series on PBS that breaks open the boundaries of nature documentaries, exploring everything from microscopic creatures to the planet's most iconic animals—and even the possibilities of life beyond Earth. Waldman is also a TED speaker and author. For over a decade, she has served as an advisor to NASA on astrobiology, human spaceflight and advanced technologies. In 2013, she was honored by the Obama White House as a "Champion of Change" for her work in citizen science. She lives in San Francisco, California, and enjoys collaborating with researchers to illuminate the unseen corners of our world.

Schedule A Discovery Call

Book one of our speakers to captivate your next corporate gathering, convention keynote or other private event. Our team can guide you through the booking process and assist with finding the perfect speaker for every audience and occasion.