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 28 results

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.

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.

Barton Seaver

Adventure, Climate Change, Culture, Health, Resilience, Storytelling, Sustainability

Barton Seaver is a chef who has dedicated his career to restoring the relationship we have with our ocean. It is his belief that the choices we are making for dinner are directly impacting the ocean and its fragile ecosystems. Seaver has manned the helm of some of Washington, D.C.’s most acclaimed restaurants. In doing so, he brought the idea of sustainable seafood to the nation’s capitol while earning Esquire magazine’s 2009 “Chef of the Year” status from acclaimed food writer John Mariani. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Seaver has cooked in cities all over America and the world. Having been bitten by the travel bug, Seaver found work in southern Spain at a small family restaurant. Their casual, ingredient-based cooking style would prove to be an important influence in his perception of food as an essential part of community. When the off-season arrived, Seaver hopped on a boat to Morocco and landed in the small seaside village of Essaouira. There, he took part in generations-old fishing methods, becoming a part of a community whose survival was directly linked to the oceans. This had a huge impact on his belief that sustainability is, at its root, not only an ecological matter, but also a humanitarian one. While sustainability has largely been assigned to seafood and agriculture, Barton’s work expands far beyond the dining table to encompass socio-economic and cultural issues. Locally, he pursues solutions to these problems through D.C. Central Kitchen, an organization fighting hunger not with food, but with personal empowerment, job training, and life skills. Barton has been lauded as a leader in sustainability by the Seafood Choices Alliance and was named a fellow with the Blue Ocean Institute. Barton has joined the board of Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment. Together with National Geographic, the Center is partnering with hospitals and health care providers in the Greater Boston area to educate them about healthier and more sustainable food service opportunities. He is the author of For Cod And Country (Sterling, Spring 2011), a book of recipes that inspires ocean conservation through the experience that we all share—dinner. In addition, Barton is working on television and online shows that will engage consumers by telling stories everyone can relate to, whether they are preparing a meal or preparing to eat it.

Bob Poole

Adventure, Conservationism, Photography, Science, Storytelling, Wildlife, Resilience

Bob Poole is an Emmy Award winning Director of Photography, Television Presenter and Speaker. He has an extensive credit list with BBC, PBS NATURE, NOVA, Discovery Networks, and an additional 50 plus films for National Geographic. Growing up in East Africa, Bob experienced an extraordinary childhood exploring the wilderness and wildlife that thrived there in the 1960’s and 1970’s. His unique upbringing gave him an appreciation and curiosity of the natural world, a highly adventurous spirit, and a strong sense of self-reliance. Poole’s career began in his teens on a film about elephants for National Geographic. He is a Fellow with the Explorers Club and has spoken in over 50 venues across the US, Canada and Australia, filling concert halls including Benaroya in Seattle and the Sydney Opera House. His recent work has taken him to one of Africa’s harshest climates to film desert elephants in Namibia for a four-part series by James Cameron, narrated by Natalie Portman, for National Geographic called Secrets of the Elephants, currently streaming on Disney+.Bob’s most film as Director of Photography is Tusker: The Brotherhood of Elephants has just premiered on PBS Nature, YouTube, Hulu and AppleTV. He is currently speaking in venues across the US.

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."

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.

David Doubilet

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

David Doubilet is a photojournalist specializing in ocean environments. He is a contributing photographer and author for National Geographic magazine, producing over 70 feature stories ranging from equatorial coral reefs to life beneath the polar ice. Doubilet enters the sea as a journalist, artist and explorer to document both the beauty and the devastation in our oceans. Over the course of his career, he has spent over 26,000 hours in the sea creating a window into the hidden world beneath the surface. He has spent five decades exploring the far corners of our water world from interior Africa, the marine riches of the coral triangle, temperate seas of Japan, Tasmania and New Zealand, mysterious and misunderstood world of the sharks, the Sargasso Sea, secret life of freshwater eels, ghosts of war WWII shipwrecks and recently life in the polar ice. He has been referred to as the “Audubon of the Sea” and uses photography as a universal voice for a vanishing ocean. He is currently documenting the UNESCO Marine World Heritage Site coral reefs at risk from climate change. Doubilet is a featured presenter for Nat Geo Live, a columnist, contributing editor and author of twelve books. He has been named a Contributing Photographer-in-Residence at National Geographic, a member of the Royal Photographic Society, and has been a Rolex Testimonee since 1994.

Dereck Joubert and Beverly Joubert

Adventure, Conservationism, Photography, Resilience, Storytelling, Sustainability, Wildlife

Award-winning filmmakers and National Geographic Explorers at Large Beverly and Dereck Joubert have dedicated the last four decades to conservation work across 30 countries.They were awarded a Presidential Order of Merit by Botswana’s president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama. Their wildlife films have earned 23 Emmy nominations, 9 Emmy awards, a Peabody, Grand Teton, Golden Panda awards, World Ecology Award, the Mervin Jones Fellow Award from Lions Club International and the 2021 Explorers Club Medial, the clubs highest honor.In addition to their highly acclaimed films, the Joubert’s have co-founded Great Plains Conservation and Great Plains Foundation. They presently manage over 1.5 million acres of wild lands in Africa, and that holds an estimated 2-3% of Africa’s elephants, lions, giraffe and other wildlife.In partnership with National Geographic, the Jouberts founded the Big Cats initiative in 2009, as an emergency initiative to slow the rapid decline of big cats around the world, with over 157 Grants in 29 Countries. This program has now transitioned to the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative, under the Joubert’s leadership and Great Plains Foundation management.Setting their sights on sweeping change, Dereck and Beverly created Rhinos Without Borders, a revolutionary initiative that moved 87 rhinos from high poaching areas to safety. They also started two other projects; Project Rewild in Zimbabwe relocating 101 elephants, 70 giraffes, 68 Zebras and 184 impalas to restore and rewild depleted habitats and Empowering Women in Conservation, both of these projects have received grants from National Geographic.

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