Lecturers

George Amato is Director of the Sackler Institute of Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History, an adjunct associate professor at Columbia and Fordham universities, and a research associate at Yale University. He has studied the genetics of endangered and newly discovered species of animals all around the world and has developed ways to monitor the trade of endangered-species products using DNA-based forensic science. He has published and lectured extensively on using molecular analyses to determine conservation priorities.

Peter Awn has been teaching at Columbia University for more than 30 years, where he is currently Dean of General Studies, Director of The Middle East Institute, and Professor of Islamic Religion and Comparative Religion. He has lectured widely to academics and business professionals on the role Islamic religion plays in the current political and social development of the Muslim world. He earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Classical Languages, a M.Div. in Christian Theology, and his Ph.D. in Islamic religion and comparative religion from Harvard University in 1978. He was the first recipient of the Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Award for distinguished teaching and research, and was honored the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates. He has traveled in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Iran, and South Asia.

Gail Cornell is an architectural historian and speaker who has lectured extensively on educational trips around the world over the last 15 years. From North Africa to India, from South America to Easter Island, Gail has traveled the world researching master architects, historic architecture, ancient and modern city planning, and issues in historic preservation. A graduate of Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and a member of the Society of Architectural Historians, Gail is a popular Smithsonian Journeys Study Leader.

Terence D’Altroy is the Loubat Professor of American Archaeology at Columbia University,
where his focus is the politics and economics of complex ancient societies and the formation of empires, especially in Andean South America. He has spent many years conducting research on the Inca empire in the central Peruvian highlands and northwest Argentina. Terence is the author of several definitive books on the Inca, including The Incas: Inside an American Empire, as well as two books on the history and politics of world empires.

Jack Daulton is an acclaimed lecturer on the art and architecture of non-Western civilizations. He has been a study leader on educational trips to more than 50 countries, including Mongolia, Vietnam, Bhutan, India, Ethiopia, and Mali. He is an expert on the art and architecture of Asia and Africa as well as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and other religions. Daulton is also a practicing attorney with an interest in international law relating to the preservation and conservation of the world's cultural heritage. In a widely reported 1995 federal case, he recovered a 1,000-year-old sculpture that had been stolen from a temple in Burma.

Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer Jay Dickman has worked in photojournalism for more than 30 years, covering topics as diverse as the war in El Salvador, the Olympics, national political conventions, the Super Bowl, and the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. He lived for three months in a Stone Age village in Papua New Guinea and spent a week under the Arctic ice in a nuclear attack sub on assignments for National Geographic magazine. His work has also appeared in publications around the world, including LIFE, Time, and Sports Illustrated.

Charles Doherty is an art historian, lecturer and writer who has traveled to more than 125 countries. Following a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of London’s Courtauld Institute of Art, he completed a Ph.D. in art history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He returned to London to research and catalog the Guinness art collection, and then participated in the “Art of Imperial China” post-doctoral program at the invitation of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He then taught the history of world art at Loyola University, New Orleans, and now serves as visiting professor in the MBA program of INSEEC, in Bordeaux, France, where he lectures on the business of the art and auction markets. Charles is the author of the Encyclopedia of Far Eastern Art, and has been a popular lecturer on many private jet expeditions.

Larry Goedde is Professor of Art History and the Chair of the  McIntire Department of Art at the University of Virginia. He has taught in the McIntire Department of Art since 1981, and has served the department as Chair since 1996. A scholar of Baroque art in Europe, Professor Goedde's areas of specialization include Northern Baroque art, especially 17th-century Dutch painting, early Netherlandish painting, and Old Master prints. He has lectured and written extensively on the topics of seascape, landscape and still life, with publications including his book Tempest and Shipwreck in Dutch and Flemish Art: Convention, Rhetoric and Interpretation and various exhibition catalogues and essays. He has led trips to Holland and Belgium, the Danube River, and a cruise on the Mediterranean from Rome to Lisbon.

Susan W. Hardwick, lecturer for the American Geographical Society, is an expert on the geography of the Slavic World, including Russia and Eastern Europe; central Asia; and North America. As Professor of Geography at the University of Oregon, she teaches classes and conducts research on the geography of religion, landscapes, and historical settlement. Her expertise especially focuses on the many connections linking the cultures and nations of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union with the West Coast of the United States. Professor Hardwick looks forward to exploring the many cultural, religious, and geographic interconnections linking the Eurasian countries on this itinerary.

Peter Harrigan is a journalist and publisher specializing in the cultures, history, and geography of the Arab and Muslim worlds, and their connections to the West. He is a regular, award winning contributor to Saudi Aramco World magazine and has commissioned and published books on the Arabian horse and traveling in the Middle East. He is also a visiting researcher at the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Exeter University in the United Kingdom, working on the MARES project, which studies the maritime cultures of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and a member of the Saudi-British Society and the Society of Arabian Studies. He is a frequent study leader on travel programs throughout the Middle East.

Thomas J. Heffernan is an expert on religious anthropology, ancient literature, and historical linguistics, and holds the Kenneth Curry Chair in the Humanities in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee. After completing his Ph.D. at Cambridge University, he was awarded a fellowship by the Medieval Academy of America for the study of Latin palaeography at Harvard University. He is the author of several books, including Sacred Biography: Saints and Their Biographies in the Middle Ages and The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, as well as over 60 scholarly essays and reviews. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has appeared on National Public Radio and a number of television broadcasts, and has lectured for the National Geographic Society and on adventure cruises.

Kristofer Helgen is a Research Zoologist and Curator of Mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer who has led research expeditions to remote areas on almost every continent, from the jungles of Papua New Guinea to the slopes of the Andes. He is renowned for having identified some 100 new mammal species and documented viable populations of animals previously thought to be in major decline or even extinct. He earned his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and has appeared on the Discovery Channel and on television and radio programs around the world.

James R. Karr specializes in tropical ecology, birds, conservation biology, and environmental policy, and has done extensive field work in Central and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea. In the 1980s he developed a biologically-based way to evaluate the quality of water resources, called the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI), which is a tool now used all over the world.  He is Professor Emeritus of Aquatic Sciences and Biology, and formerly the Adjunct Professor of Civil Engineering, Environmental Health, and Public Affairs, and the director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Washington. Dr. Karr has a B.Sc. from Iowa State University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. He has also taught at Purdue, University of Illinois, and Virginia Tech and is the author of more than 300 scientific papers and monographs.

Martin Kays grew up close to the Okavango Delta which gave him the opportunity to be exposed to wildlife at a young age. Since 2008, he has been a guide coordinator and head guide in the Jao Concession. He is a fully licensed Botswana professional guide and an Accredited Trainer and Assessor with the Botswana Training Authority. Martin enjoys the opportunity to pursue his passion for wildlife photography and spending time in the bush.

David Keeling is is a lecturer for the American Geographical Society and head of Western Kentucky University’s (WKU) Department of Geography and Geology. Professor Keeling’s research interests include the geography of exploration and discovery, resource use, regional cultures, and development in emerging economies. He served as a Study Tour Leader on several AGS expeditions, including around the world expeditions in 2004 and 2009. He was born in England and lived in Australia for 12 years.

Kabo Kgopa was born in Botswana, and after being introduced to the work of the Department of Wildlife & National Parks, during his one year of national service, he was inspired by the wild areas of Botswana and decided to pursue a career in guiding. Since 2001, he has spent most of his career on the outskirts of the Okavango. He is now one of the top guides in the Jao Concession. Kabo has a keen interest in photography, birding and furthering his knowledge in nature.

Parag Khanna is an international relations expert and Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation. He is an expert on geopolitics, global governance, and Asian and European affairs, and wrote the international best-seller The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order. A graduate of Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, Parag has traveled to nearly 100 countries, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Explorers Club, and in 2009, was honored as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

National Geographic photographer Bob Krist has shot several articles for National Geographic magazine and over thirty for National Geographic Traveler, where he is a contributing editor. His many assignments have taken him to all seven continents and have won awards in the Pictures of the Year, Communication Arts, and World Press Photo competitions. His latest book on travel photography, Travel Photography: Documenting the World’s People and Places, was recently published in the Digital Masters series. Bob will be on hand to help you photograph the stunning scenery, vibrant cultures, and extraordinary wildlife we will encounter throughout the expedition.

Zoologist Alan Lieberman is the Director of Field Programs at San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Over the past 36 years, he has served as the Zoo's curator of birds and curator of reptiles, and pursued a variety of field research and conservation projects outside of the Zoo. He has reintroduced Andean Condors in Colombia, documented Amazonian rainforest regeneration, founded the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program, and worked with translocations of lories in French Polynesia.  He now administers the Hawaii bird conservation effort, the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, and the Sempra Wind Energy Condor/Eagle project; and oversees the Post-Millennium Post-Doctoral Fellow Program, and regional programs in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Bruce Loeffler Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of Geology and Visiting Professor of Art at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, and study leader for the American Museum of Natural History. He is an enthusiastic and gifted educator, who teaches ecology, introductory geology, mineralogy, geochemistry, and volcanology, as well as surveys of Western art, American art, and American ethnic studies. His study of volcanoes has taken him around the world, and he has traveled with AMNH groups to the Canadian Arctic, Iceland, Svalbard, Norway, the British Isles, Sicily, Mexico, Russia, and all over Asia. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry, and both an M.A. in art history and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Ambassador Marilyn McAfee (ret.) was a career foreign service officer from l968 to 1998, serving primarily in Latin America, including Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Chile, and Bolivia. She most recently served on the National Board of the World Affairs Councils of America from 2000 to 2008 and is now a private consultant with Manatt Jones Global Strategies in Washington, D.C.

Professor Scott Pearson is an internationally acclaimed specialist on economic development in Africa, Southeast Asia, and southern Europe. He taught at Stanford's Food Research Institute for more than three decades, serving as its director for five years. Scott has co-authored a dozen books, wrote numerous journal articles, won several awards for his research and teaching, and advised governments on food and agricultural policy.

Geologist Jeffrey Edward Post has been Curator of the U.S. National Gem and Mineral Collection at the Smithsonian Institution for the past 18 years. He is an expert on mineralogy, gemology, geochemistry, crystallography, and electron microscopy, and looks forward to sharing with travelers his insights on the incredible natural wonders of the destinations we will explore. He received Bachelor of Science degrees in geology and chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville; a Ph.D. in chemistry, with a specialty in geochemistry, from Arizona State University; and was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Geological Sciences at Harvard University.

Chris Rainier is a National Geographic Society Fellow, cultural photographer, and a co-director of the National Geographic Enduring Voices Project, documenting endangered languages and cultures. He also directs National Geographic’s All Roads Photography Program, which supports minority photographers and filmmakers around the globe. A Contributing Editor for National Geographic Traveler, and a Contributing Photographer for National Geographic Adventure, Chris also serves as a photography consultant on National Public Radio’s Day to Day Show. He has traveled to all seven continents, and participated in extensive expeditions throughout Africa, Antarctica and New Guinea. Among his numerous awards is the prestigious Lowell Thomas Award, given by the Explorers Club for adventure stories. His work has been displayed around the world, from the Australian Museum in Sydney and The Biblotheque Nationale in Paris to the United Nations.

Wayne Ranney specializes in making the diverse landscapes of our planet come alive for fellow travelers. He is Professor of Geology at Coconino College in Flagstaff, Arizona, and is the author of many award-winning books. His expertise is in understanding how the course of human history has been shaped by the lay of the land. He is a veteran of expedition travel, and has visited and lectured on all seven continents, in over 75 countries from Antarctica to Zimbabwe. Wayne looks forward to sharing his insight and enthusiasm for the spectacular mountains, coral reefs, and desert landscapes observed on our private jet journey.

National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson has researched and photographed a combined 45 stories for National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveler. Jim’s assignments have taken him around the world—from the tops of active volcanoes, through the Celtic lands of his ancestors, and deep into America’s heartland. Jim and his work have been featured twice on CBS News Sunday Morning and on ABC News Nightline. His "Notes from a Wide Spot in the Road" won the international Crystal AMI award for short feature excellence.

James D. Rosenthal lectures and writes on current affairs, traveling extensively and drawing on more than 30 years’ experience as a veteran Foreign Service officer and former U.S. Ambassador. He represented the U.S. State Department in Africa and Southeast Asia, served on the U.S. delegation to the Vietnam peace talks in Paris, and was U.S. Ambassador to the West African nation of Guinea. Other overseas posts and traveling include Mongolia, Trinidad, India, Vietnam, France, The Central African Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Philippines. In addition to his diplomatic duties, he taught political science and international relations at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

David E. Smith is Professor and Associate Department Chair of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. An expert in biological oceanography, marine ecology, and invertebrate zoology, he looks forward to sharing his insights into the jungles of Peru, the coastal environments of the Pacific Rim, the coral islands and creatures of the Great Barrier Reef, and the predator-prey relationship of wildlife in Tanzania. He received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.

Craig Stanford is a professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California and director of the USC Jane Goodall Research Center. A six-time National Geographic grantee, Craig conducts research on the links between human and animal behavior in India, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda and elsewhere; and has collaborated with Jane Goodall on the study of chimpanzees. Craig is the author of more than 120 articles and 15 books, including Biological Anthropology: The Natural History of Humankind and Beautiful Minds.

Olga Stavrakis is an anthropologist specializing in the development of human culture, from the primitive to the most complex; from poverty to prosperity. During the course of a long and varied career, she has excavated ancient jungle cities, mapped prehistoric agricultural fields, and lived in remote villages in Asia, Oceania, Eastern Europe and Latin America while working on economic development projects for the United Nations, USAID, and the World Bank. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Minnesota and holds degrees in archaeology, history, and geology from the Universities of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Originally from Ukraine, she has traveled extensively and, since her retirement in 2003, has been sharing her excitement and fascination with the variety of human cultural experience on previous jet programs, National Geographic Expeditions, and other world adventures to unique and spectacular places.

Eleanor Sterling is Director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC). As a conservation biologist, Dr. Sterling conducts fieldwork, studying the distribution patterns of biodiversity in tropical regions of the world and translating this information into recommendations for conservation managers, decision-makers, and educators. Dr. Sterling also teaches at Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, where she serves as the Director of Graduate Studies.

Pegi Vail, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist, filmmaker, and curator whose scholarly work explores the political economy of tourism and how travel literature and media shape our experiences and understanding of a place. She lectures on culture through film and media at Columbia University, and has taught courses on ethnographic documentary production and on tourism at New York University. She has curated exhibitions on film and indigenous media at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, and numerous Smithsonian museums. Her documentaries include the upcoming Gringo Trails and the award-winning short film The Dodger’s Sym-phony, which was broadcast on PBS.

Kevin W.R. Van Breda grew up in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. Kevin first discovered the Zambezi Valley and its mighty river on a school field trip and since 1994, he has embraced the opportunity to experience this region and other Southern African wildlife areas. He is involved in the Rhino Reintroduction Program, Lion Collaring, and Large Carnivore Research undertaken by the Department of National. Kevin’s special interests are history, birding, fishing and photography.

Cynthia Werner is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M. She is a socio-cultural anthropologist with a specialty in economic anthropology, particularly in Central Asia, Mongolia, and societies along the Silk Road. She received her advanced degrees from Indiana University and has taught at the University of Iowa and Pitzer College. Dr. Werner looks forward to sharing her insights on social networking, kinship and marriage, small-scale trade, the privatization of agriculture, and the anthropology of tourism.

Richard Wright holds the Orvil E. Dryfoos Chair in Public Affairs and has been a Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College for the last 25 years. His research and teaching focuses on population and economic geography, especially migration, immigration, and transnationalism. With grant support from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Russell Sage Foundation, he has authored more than fifty scholarly papers. With Mark Ellis, he is writing a book, Patterns on the Land, on nativism and immigrant settlement patterns in the United States.