Kathy Moran is the former Deputy Director of Photography at National Geographic Magazine. As the magazine’s first Senior Editor for Natural History Projects, she’s been producing projects about terrestrial and underwater ecosystems for the magazine since 1990. She was the Project Manager for the partnership between the National Geographic Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society, documenting photographer Nick Nichols and Dr Michael Fay’s trek across Central Africa. The resulting stories were the impetus for the creation of Gabon’s national park system. More recently, Kathy produced two single-topic, conservation-focused issues of the magazine – one on Oceans in May 2021 and another on the Serengeti in December 2021.

In addition to her work at National Geographic, Kathy’s edited several books for the National Geographic Society, including Women Photographers at the National Geographic, The Africa Diaries: An Illustrated Life in the Bush, Cat Shots, Tigers Forever and Secrets of the Elephants. She was the photo editor for the anthems 100 Best Wildlife Pictures and Wildlife: The Best Photos. Kathy also recently curated the exhibition 50 Best Wildlife Photographs for the society’s museum, which has travelled nationally and internationally. In addition to this, she’s produced numerous books with photographers from the International League of Conservation Photographers in collaboration with the University of Chicago Press. She was named Picture Editor of the Year for her winning portfolios in both the 2017 and 2006 Picture of the Year International competitions as well as the 2011 Best of Photo Competition.

Kathy is a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers and currently serves on the board. She’s on the advisory committee for Focused on Nature and as a member of Moran Griffin Studio she continues to edit books and photo projects, mentor photographers, serve on photo juries and work with the xPosure Festival in Sharjah, UAE. She lives in Maine, USA, with her husband and two bad cats.

Gavin Broad is an entomologist working on the taxonomy and ecology of parasitoid wasps. He’s been a curator of the wasp collection cared for by London’s Natural History Museum for 18 years. Before this, he worked on insect recording schemes and the evolution of wasps. As well as many publications, often on new wasp species, Gavin’s also written several books on insects. He has a keen interest in the intersection of art and science, running the Museum’s Art-Science Interest Group.

Gavin is a keen birder, moth trapper and natural historian and is a vice president of the British Entomological and Natural History Society. He runs workshops on wasp identification, gives talks, edits journals and supervises students. Recently, Gavin has been heavily involved in sampling UK insects for whole-genome sequencing.

Jaime Culebras is a biologist and herpetologist with a MSc in Environmental Education and MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation of Tropical Areas. He’s been living in Ecuador for more than 14 years, where he works as a reptile and amphibian researcher and nature photographer. He’s co-authored several papers on biogeography, ecology, rediscoveries and descriptions of new species of amphibians and reptiles.

In 2021, Jaime published the story These See-Through Frogs are Full of Surprises for National Geographic Magazine. He’s received numerous photography and conservation awards, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year, World Press Photo and the Montphoto-WWF Conservation Grant. Last year, he was featured in the Heroes episode of BBC’s Planet Earth III for his work on frog conservation.

Jaime wants to spread the word about the existence and importance of threatened species. He’s passionate not only about promoting love towards reptiles and amphibians but about fighting against the illegal trafficking of species and stopping snake-human conflict.

Jennifer Hayes is a contributing photographer, author and speaker for National Geographic Partners. She’s a scientist turned storyteller who’s spent 11,000 hours submerged beneath the water’s surface, from local ponds in Africa’s interior to the Pacific Ocean and both polar regions.

Jennifer is an award-winning photographer, contributor, editor and author of numerous publications and books on marine environments. She’s received the Hans Hass Award and SUNY Presidents Medal for Natural History. She’s also a trustee of the Shark Research Institute and an Explorer Club National Fellow as well as Principal Photographer for Elysium Artists for Antarctic, Arctic Expeditions and Coral Triangle Expeditions. Her work has been featured on NPR, ABC Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, National Geographic TV, Wild and the Disney Channel.

She started diving in her early teens and began an aquatic career in fisheries. Her passion for elasmobranchs and living primitive fishes led to graduate degrees in zoology and marine ecology documenting shark finning and commercial shark landings in the Northwest Atlantic. Her doctoral research focused on telemetry, habitat and population dynamics of sturgeon – a threatened group of fish clinging to survival by a thread. Jennifer is committed to promoting collaboration in ocean storytelling and providing a voice and platform for Next Generation Ocean.

Hans Cosmas Ngoteya is a wildlife and conservation storyteller from Tanzania. He’s the co-founder of Ngoteya Wild, a Tanzanian wildlife and conservation storytelling organisation for which he’s directed award-winning documentaries. Hans is also the co-founder of the Tanzania Wildlife Media Association, an association of professional Tanzanian wildlife media creatives, where he mentors aspiring wildlife conservation storytellers. In 2023, he was honoured with the prestigious Jackson Wild Rising Star Award, recognising his remarkable achievements in nature, conservation and science media. His ultimate goal is to tell stories that will help to develop and explore practical solutions to solving emerging conservation challenges and to help communities co-exist with wildlife.

Andy Parkinson is a Nikon Europe Ambassador and a contributing photographer to National Geographic Magazine. He’s one of Europe’s most awarded and respected photographers and has won more than 130 national and international awards for his photography, including being awarded four times in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

In 2020 he was the overall winner of Big Picture Natural World, and in 2016 he was named overall winner in Bird Photographer of the Year. His most recent story for National Geographic Magazine, published in the March 2023 issue, was on mountain hares, a species that Andy’s worked with for more than 20 years. He was a significant photography and film contributor to the successful campaign to achieve legal protection for this rapidly declining UK species.

Though Andy built his career on photographing species close to his Derbyshire home, he now leads photographic trips to destinations all over the world. He’s also started his own YouTube channel, sharing his extensive knowledge and experience by creating wildlife photography tutorials. He lives in Derbyshire with his wife Claire and their staffie Mya.

Akanksha Sood Singh is among India’s premiere award-winning natural history filmmakers. She’s the founding partner of The Gaia People, one of the country’s leading independent natural history production companies, and the founder of the Women of the Wild film series in India, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Her career spans more than 22 years and covers the range and breadth of film production. From the jungles to tentpole feature films, crafting scripts to negotiating complex acquisition and co-productions, Akanksha’s done it all and now she’s producing and directing her own films. Her films have been premiered on almost all major networks in the world and she’s received more than 200 awards and nominations for her work. Her work has won seven National Film Awards from the President of India and she’s recently been awarded the Leadership Diversity Award by the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers.

Akanksha is a communications consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme and an independent advisory board member for Bennet University and the Andamans Conservancy Foundation. She’s also a juror for the International Emmy and Realscreen Awards and a member of the Jackson Wild Advisory Council. Akanksha has been chosen as one of the 75 Women Leaders in India by UN Women and is featured in their book Hum: When Women Lead.