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 33 results

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.

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.

Babak Tafreshi

Science, Photography, Technology, Space

Babak Tafreshi is a science photojournalist and National Geographic Explorer who, since beginning astrophotography in the 1990s, has merged art and science through visual stories. Using photos, videos and 360 immersive media, he has documented breathtaking night scenes from all continents. Since 2007, Tafreshi has been directing a growing team of photographers in nearly 25 countries for “The World at Night” project. His other long-term projects are “Life at Night Atlas” (where, since 2023, he has documented the night-time ecosystem and impact of light pollution) and “From Above & Below” (where, since 2024, he has achieved coordinated Earth-space night photography). His imagery aims to reconnect humanity with the natural world, reveal the wonders of science to public, and connect cultures through common interest in the night sky. In 2009, he received the Lennart Nilsson Award, the world’s most recognized scientific imaging award at the time, and in 2022, he earned the Royal Photographic Society Award and the National Geographic Society’s Wayfinder Award. The International Astronomical Union named the minor planet 276163 — an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter—after Tafreshi, whose interest in astronomy began when he first saw the moon through a telescope as a child in Tehran, Iran.

Benjamin H. Mirin

Photography, Culture, Conservationism, Technology, Wildlife

Ben Mirin is the founding director of the Creative Conservation Lab (CCL) in partnership with Cornell University and UNC Chapel Hill. CCL combines biodiversity, art and storytelling to make conservation more inclusive, and is currently seeking collaborators in these spaces to advance their mission. By training, Mirin is an acoustic biologist, storyteller and artist who studies sound in nature and biocultural conservation. He also composes music from his sound recordings and performs live as a “wildlife DJ.” Mirin completed his Ph.D. in 2024 at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where he studied birdsong and the wildlife trade in Indonesia. Through science, music and media, he combines his passions to engage new audiences in a more inclusive and sustainable future for all life on earth. Mirin is the creator and host of the digital and television series "WILD BEATS" on National Geographic Kids and Nat Geo Wild. He is also a 2016 National Geographic Explorer, Certified Educator, and Speaker with NG Expeditions and Nat Geo Live. Mirin has been a senior fellow at The Safina Center and The Explorers Club, and the first Artist in Residence at the Bronx Zoo with additional residencies at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India and the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the recipient of Fulbright Hays, Department of Education FLAS, and NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, the Scott Pearlman Field Award in Exploration, and a four-time TED speaker. His online game, BeastBox, has been distributed to over four million students worldwide, and he has written, produced and starred in films about science for National Geographic, bioGraphic, Slate, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American Online, Audubon Magazine and others. He lives between Ithaca, New York; Boston; and Washington D.C.

Brian J. Skerry

Wildlife, Photography, Conservationism, Science, Adventure, Climate Change, Leadership, Resilience, Storytelling, Sustainability, Teamwork

Brian Skerry is a film producer/director and veteran photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater realms. His recent documentary film credits include "Secrets of the Whales" and "Return of the White Shark," both currently streaming on Disney+. In 2021, Skerry received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary as a producer of "Secrets of the Whales." Since 1998, Skerry has been a contributing photographer for National Geographic magazine, where he has created and photographed more than 30 feature stories, including seven cover stories. His work has also been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Paris Match, Esquire, and Audubon. In 2014 he was named as a National Geographic Society Photography Fellow and then named a National Geographic Society Storytelling Fellow in 2017 - the same year he was awarded the title of Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year. In 2016, he received the National Geographic magazine's Photographer’s Photographer Award, a recognition bestowed by his colleagues, other National Geographic magazine photographers. Skerry was named the 2025 Nature Photographer of the Year by the North American Nature Photographers Association. Skerry is the author of 12 books including the acclaimed monographs "Ocean Soul," "SHARK" and "Secrets of the Whales."

Bryan R. Smith

Photography, Conservationism

When Bryan Smith bought his first camera at WalMart in 2007, he had no idea his passion and persistence would carry him through the ranks of the industry in the span of just a decade. His first film, 49 Megawatts, documented a community’s struggle with a hydroelectric project on the Ashlu River and eventually led him to the hallways of National Geographic. He received an Expedition Council grant to lead a team of kayakers into the wilds of Kamchatka and went on to direct The Man Who Can Fly for the National Geographic Channel. After several years as a freelance director of photography for National Geographic, Bryan founded Reel Water Productions. A boutique production company based in Squamish, British Columbia specializing in documentary, expedition and commercial content. Known for taking cameras into some of the most extreme and inhospitable places on the planet, Bryan is now using his skills behind the lens for the giant screen. He is currently working on one of the most anticipated IMAX films in the industry, Einstein’s Incredible Universe.

Caitlin E. O'Connell-Rodwell

Wildlife, Science, Photography, Storytelling, Conservationism

Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell is a behavioral ecologist who has studied elephant society within Etosha National Park, Namibia, for over 30 years. Her National Geographic Society-funded project started in 2002, when she began measurements of the seismic properties of elephant low frequency vocalizations and the elephants’ ability to detect these vibrations as signals. The scope of her work expanded beyond acoustic and seismic studies to a broad look at how an elephant society is organized in an arid environment. O’Connell-Rodwell's journey as a scientist began as an undergraduate majoring in biology, which led to a master’s degree in animal communication, studying the role communication plays in species isolation mechanisms in the Hawaiian Islands. From there, she traveled through southern Africa for a year and accepted a three-year contract with the Namibian Government, working with farmers in rural Zambezi to help them manage the elephant/human interface in the region, along with studying elephant ecology and behavior and particularly their vocal communication. That work formed the basis of her dissertation research at University of California, Davis, where she obtained a Ph.D. in ecology. O’Connell-Rodwell then took on a postdoc at Stanford University in the Center for Conservation Biology to study ivory trade policy based in China, realizing her passion lay in studying African elephants in the wild. O’Connell-Rodwell and her husband co-founded a nonprofit organization, Utopia Scientific, in 2002. She has published numerous books and scientific and popular feature articles about her research, including features in Scientific American, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine and Aeon Magazine. She has given two TED talks and many public lectures around the world, including several countries in Europe, as well as China, Australia and Africa. She was voted Distinguished Young Alumna at UC Davis, and won the Sibert and Horn Book Honors for her co-authored book, "The Elephant Scientist." O’Connell-Rodwell is currently working on several documentaries, storytelling and speaking engagements to help further instill an awe of nature in budding scientists and nature lovers.

Cole Sartore

Conservationism, Photography, Resilience, Storytelling, Wildlife, Climate Change

National Geographic Photo Ark curator, field producer, and photo editor Cole Sartore is a photographer, speaker, author, curator, and conservationist. Started by his father, Joel, the Photo Ark has become the world’s largest collection of species portraiture. Since it’s inception in 2006, the Photo Ark has documented over 16,000 species in more than 70 countries worldwide. The goal is to create a visual archive of global biodiversity, and move the public to care about extinction. The Photo Ark shares imagery of the most vulnerable animals on this planet through numerous magazine publications, books, television, public projections, and two new National Geographic books: The Photo Ark and Photo Ark Wonders. Images from the collection also were shown on 10 different covers of National Geographic Magazine in April of 2016. Sartore has served as co-editor of National Geographic YourShot, videographer, producer, and Photo Ark editor, guest curator of the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art, and principal of the Nebraska based fine art gallery, the Lincoln Art Company. Through the work of Joel, Cole, and many others, Photo Ark images and video continue to inspire and awe viewers through incredibly intricate, elegantly composed portraits of animals throughout the world. The Photo Ark has been the subject of several national broadcasts, including 60 Minutes, National Geographic Explorer, NBC Nightly News, NPR’s Weekend Edition, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, CBS Sunday Morning, and the PBS documentary series, Rare: Portraits of the Photo Ark. Sartore graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in anthropology. He currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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