Marine biologist and photographer Octavio Aburto is an associate professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), Senior Fellow at the International League of Conservation Photographers, and former director of the Gulf of California Marine Program. Aburto obtained his Ph.D. at SIO’s Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, receiving the University of California, San Diego, Jean Fort award for his doctoral research. As a WWF Kathryn Fuller Fellow and Hellman Fellow, his research and photographs have focused on marine protected areas and commercially exploited marine species in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and the United States. His photographs have won international contests including Our World Underwater 2012 and 2016.

Agustina Besada is founder and co-director of Unplastify, an organization that, focusing in Latin America, promotes awareness about and seeks to rethink people’s relationship with plastic. She has crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a 36-foot sailboat—twice—to research firsthand the reality of ocean plastics and study international scalable solutions. Previously, she served as executive director of Brooklyn-based sustainability hub and recycling center Sure We Can. An industrial designer by training, Besada has an M.S. in sustainability management from Columbia University’s The Earth Institute and completed a Columbia Business School executive program on entrepreneurship. She is also a 2018 National Geographic Explorer.

Carmen Chávez is a tropical biologist and serves as director of Peru programs at the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research Foundation (ACEER). Prior to joining ACEER, Chávez worked at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, and was an administrator at the Cocha Cashu Biological Station in Peru’s Manu National Park. Chávez has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from San Antonio Abad National University, Peru, and an M.Sc. in biology with a focus in biological conservation from Wake Forest University, USA. For her work in conservation education, Chávez leads local teams of professionals and dedicated staff in Peru’s Madre de Dios Region in the design and implementation of experiential education and research programs to enhance the STEM curricula of local schools. Her programs have received national and international recognition. Chávez is currently based in Miami, USA, but travels frequently to Peru and the Amazon region of Madre de Dios.

An Argentine Patagonia native, ecologist Emiliano Donadio is head scientist at The Conservation Land Trust-Argentina. With a focus on wildlife conservation, Donadio investigates processes including predator-prey interactions, competitive interactions, and migrations. He has studied many organisms, from pumas and Andean condors to grasses and sedges. He also runs a small farm in the foothills of the Andes. Donadio has a B.Sc. in zoology from the National University of La Plata in Argentina and earned a master’s in zoology and a Ph.D. in ecology as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Wyoming. He is a National Geographic Explorer.

Eliana Elias has worked for over 20 years in the Peruvian Amazon and other rural areas to design and implement strategies that combine communications, sustainable community development, and women’s leadership. Elias is co-founder and executive director of Minga Peru, a nonprofit promoting sustainable change for indigenous women and their communities in the Peruvian Amazon. Her work has been recognized by the Clinton School of Public Service, the Global Philanthropy Forum, and many others. A member of the Avina Foundation’s Latin American Leadership Network, she has received the Ashoka prize for social innovation and was the first international recipient of Southern Methodist University’s Triumph of the Spirit award.

Liliana Gutierrez is executive director of Noroeste Sustentable, a nonprofit supporting coastal communities. A member of the Latin-American Network for Integrated Coastal Management, she works on highly complex multisectoral processes and has received training in conflict resolution, facilitation, mediation, and effective communication. In 2016, Gutierrez helped found Achamar, a for-profit organization that invests in fishery and community restoration. Previously, she was director of environmental policy at Mexico’s environment ministry, SEMARNAT. A graduate fellow at the Academy for Systems Change, Gutierrez has an M.P.A. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and an M.Sc. from the State University of New York.