2026 Speakers
Caroline Van Hemert
Dr. Caroline Van Hemert is an Alaskan author, adventurer, and wildlife biologist. Her 2019 book, The Sun is a Compass, won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Adventure Travel and was cited as one of the best outdoor books of 2019 by Outside, Bustle, and Forbes. Caroline’s journeys have taken her from the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean to the legendary Greek Isles. Along the way, she has been outsmarted by Cheeto-eating crows, stalked by predatory bears, tailed by orcas, and humbled by 10-g chickadees that shiver through winter nights.
Caroline’s writing has been featured in the New York Times, Audubon, Outside, Washington Post, and more. With her husband and two young sons, you can find her somewhere between a cozy home in downtown Anchorage, a remote, off-grid cabin near Haines, Alaska, and aboard a sailboat. Caroline holds a Ph.D. in wildlife biology and an M.A. in creative writing. Her current book project, Upwellings, explores how surprise endings in the natural world can help us rethink the future.
Nick Bayly
Nick’s love of birds began at the age of seven and more than 30 years later, birds continue to be his primary passion. Having completed his PhD on migratory birds at the University of Sussex, UK, Nick crossed the Atlantic in 2007 and has been working in the Neotropics ever since. As a founding member of the Colombian NGO SELVA, he leads the organization’s award-winning Migratory Ecology program that today spans multiple countries and species. Over the last 15 years he has trained over 100 Latin American biologists, supervised PhD and Master’s students, published more than 50 papers and led the development and implementation of the Conservation Investment Strategy for mid-elevation forests in Central and South America. His current research projects include the Neotropical Flyways Project, which works across six countries to uncover the mysteries of migration in the Neotropics, and detailed studies of the non-breeding ecology of species like the Cerulean Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler and Golden-winged Warbler. Nick is also committed to conservation, and has spearheaded habitat restoration and protected area creation projects in several regions of Colombia and Costa Rica. Currently, in partnership with Alaska Department of Fish and Game, he is coordinating efforts to enhance and manage stopover habitats for Olive-sided Flycatchers, Blackpoll Warblers and Gray-cheeked Thrush in Colombia.
Chris Wood
Chris Wood is Director of eBird and Program Director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He leads efforts to advance global biodiversity monitoring through the integration of participatory science, large-scale data systems, and analytical innovation. His work focuses on building partnerships and tools that translate bird observation data into decision-relevant information for conservation, spanning local to global scales, with eBird serving as a core platform for data collection and integration.