2018-2019
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Speaker
Subject  (click date button for details)
30 Years on the Appalachian Trail
​​Jeff Ryan
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Hiker and historian Jeff Ryan logged over 8,000 miles hiking some of North America’s most notable trails including the Pacific Crest Trail and the New England Trail. In 1985 he started “inadvertently” hiking the Appalachian Trail with a friend, an adventure that spanned 2,100 miles and three decades. 
His approach of thoughtful segment hiking versus the frenetic pace of thru-hiking allowed for an intimate experience with the landscape. Jeff’s book about that journey, Appalachian Odyssey: A 28-year Hike on America’s Trail, was published in 2016.
Jeff Ryan was born and raised in Maine. He maintains a popular blog covering all aspects of hiking the Appalachian Trail. When he isn’t writing, researching, hiking or speaking at various venues, Jeff is on the road exploring the country in his vintage 1985 VW camper.

​Jeff Ryan

30 Years on the Appalachian Trail
The Unconquered: In Search of the 
Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes
Scott Wallace
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Scott Wallace teaches journalism at the University of Connecticut and covers the environment, vanishing cultures, and conflict over land and resources for major media organizations. His assignments have taken him from encampments of native reindeer herders in the Arcticto combat missions in the jungles of Central America. 
Formerly a correspondent for the Guardian and CBS News, Wallace has written several stories for National Geographic magazine about the Amazon rain forest. 

​He is author of the New York Times best-selling book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes, based on a National Geographic assignment into the deepest redoubts of the rainforest to track and protect a mysterious, seldom-glimpsed tribe: “at once fantastic and horrifying, an untouched Garden of Eden and an unmitigated Green Hell.”

He is a recipient of the Explorers Club's prestigious Lowell Thomas Award and an expert for National Geographic Expeditions.
 
Scott’s work on the Last Tribes of the Amazon appears on the cover of the October 2018 National Geographic.  In it, he tackles threats to conservation and culture and the protection of the few remaining isolated tribes. Read more about Scott's adventures at
www.scottwallace.com.
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Scott Wallace

The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes
The Future of Travel
​ Juan Enriquez Cabot
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Juan  will discuss the future of travel: from self driving cars to the increasingly pressing need for humans to travel from planet Earth. 

​Juan is a futurist, venture capitalist, and academic. He thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will bring in business, technology, politics and society. He's the author of numerous bestselling books including Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation Are Shaping Life on Earth; a book which describes humans' increasing ability to shape their environment.
Juan serves on a variety of boards including Cabot Corporation, Synthetic Genomics, OpenWater, Harvard Medical School Advisory Council, Harvard's David Rockefeller Center, Tuft's Engineering, WGBH, Questbridge, and the Boston Museum of Science. Juan Is a TED All-Star, with nine TED talks and many TEDx talks. He was a fellow at Harvard's Center for International Affairs. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

 Juan Enriquez Cabot

The Future of Travel
CANCELLED
FEBRUARY 12, 2019
Members' Night

Cancelled due to storm
JANUARY 8
​The Pyramids of the Sudan
Rita Freed
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Rita Freed has led numerous expeditions through Sudan.  She is one of few Americans granted access to some of Sudan’s most incredible archeological treasures. 
 
Rita  is the John F. Cogan and Mary L. Cornille Chair, Art of Ancient Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she oversees important collections
of Egyptian, Nubian, and Ancient Near Eastern art. She is also Adjunct Professor of Art at Wellesley College. Prior to her work in Boston, Freed was 
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Founding Director of the Institute of
Egyptian Art and Archaeology and Associate Professor of Art at the University of Memphis.  She graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College and received her Certificate in Museology, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
 
A historian of Egyptian and Nubian art, Freed is best known for her organization of several international traveling exhibitions, including Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen an examination of Egypt’s Amarna Period, Ramesses the Great: The Pharaoh and His Time featuring the many works of Egypt’s greatest builder and A Divine Tour of Ancient Egypt which examined Egyptian religion in a geographical setting. She has served as chief curator of The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC, an exhibition showcasing the material from the tomb of the Governor Djehutynakht, the largest known burial assemblage of the Middle Kingdom. Currently, Freed is working on an upcoming exhibition of the MFA’s illustrious collection of Nubian art.
 
Freed has participated on archaeological excavations in Egypt (Bersha, Saqqara, Giza, Mendes, and Karnak), Israel (Tel Qasile) and Cyprus (Idalion), and has authored many books and articles

Rita Freed

​The Pyramids of the Sudan
DECEMBER 11
*Permanent Fund Grant Recipient
​Sedna Epic Expedition to Nunavut and Greenland
Susan R. Eaton
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​Susan Eaton is a Canadian geologist, geophysicist, science journalist and conservationist who explores the world’s oceans—from Antarctica to the Arctic—in the snorkel zone, a unique land-sea-ice-air interface where charismatic animals and snorkelers comingle.  She studies the interplay of plate tectonics, oceans, glaciers, climate and life in polar regions.
 

Eaton is the founder and leader of the all-female Sedna Epic Expedition, a multi-year underwater project—involving the study of climate change via snorkeling and diving—that takes places in the High Arctic (Labrador, Nunavut and Greenland).
 
Team Sedna is comprised of an international team (50 percent of the women are American) of ocean scientists, explorers, educators, artists, movie-makes, photographers, and scuba diving and medical professionals. Sedna’s sea women scout, document and record climate change in the Arctic.
 
Sedna Epic’s objectives extend beyond scuba diving and snorkeling activities related to exploration and studying climate change in the Arctic—rather, at its core, the Sedna project involves women ocean professionals working with Inuit girls and young women with a focus on health, wellness, environment and empowerment issues.
 
In 2015, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (the “RCGS”) named Eaton one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers and trailblazers. A year later, the RCGS named Eaton one of Canada’s 25 greatest female explorers.  She is a Fellow of the RCGS and a Member International (2011) of the New York-based Explorers Club. For the past several years she has volunteered as an executive member of the Canadian Chapter of the Explorers Club, where she is currently the Regional Director of the Prairies and Northwest Territories.

Susan R. Eaton

Sedna Epic Expedition to Nunavut and Greenland
NOVEMBER 13
Around the World: A SlideShow in Technicolor
Peter Guttman
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​Peter Guttman is a photographer, author, app creator, fine artist, television personality, lecturer and adventurer who has traveled on assignment to more than 230 countries. He's the recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Exploration and Storytelling, has three times won the Lowell Thomas Travel 
Journalist of the Year Award, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Travel Writers Society and a George Eastman Power of the Image Award, cited as one of “20 of the World's Most Influential Photographers”.
 
A visual storyteller, Guttman has sought out the world's hidden corners through decades-long explorations.  His body of work often investigates indigenous peoples and exotic wildlife, is supplemented by substantial elements of writing and research while employing innovative shooting techniques. Long before the GoPro, drones and selfie sticks, he created surrealistic mid-air suspension shots, either utilizing his tripod as a fishing rod or attaching his camera to the wings of Allagash Wilderness floatplanes or the sails of Mojave Desert land yachts.  Guttman’s annual travel ‘slide show’ hosted in New York City apartment has been dubbed by NPR’s All Things Considered as one of the ‘hottest tickets around’.
 
Guttman will lead the club on a journey to places far away and close to home. ​

Peter Guttman
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Around the World: A SlideShow in Technicolor
OCTOBER 9
Vendée Globe Races
Richard Wilson
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​On February 21, 2017 Rich Wilson crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe solo round the world yacht race after 107 days, 48 minutes and 18 seconds at sea. Wilson, 66, was the oldest skipper and the only American in the race, and finished in 13th place. His progress in the singlehanded 27,440 mile race from Les Sables d’Olonne on the coast of France was followed by over one million people in 79 countries around the world. ​
Wilson is the 2018 winner of the Cruising Club of America’s Special Recognition Award.  The award honored the highly meritorious and extraordinary nautical accomplishments of Wilson in two Vendée Globe Races. The solo, non-stop race around the world is the toughest sailboat race of all, and Wilson is the only American to have finished two of them.  In 1990, Wilson created sitesALIVE.com to use ocean sailing, as an exciting and engaging educational tool for teaching children about science, geography, math, and history.

​Richard Wilson

Vendée Globe Races