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"Campaigning and Lobbying"

Policy Communicator

Before Heidi could walk she was immersed in the marine environment. Being Australian the ocean and surrounding aquatic environments are extremely important to her and it is a passion passed on to Heidi by her parents and grandparents. Currently living in the United Kingdom where she has been able to use her formal training in fisheries, climate change, coral reefs and mangrove to further the ambition of Commonwealth countries through the Commonwealth Blue Charter. When Heidi is not working she seeks out the calming effects of the beach, rivers and inlets. Where possible Heidi also scuba dives and explores the beauty under the ocean surface.

Founder of The Last Plastic Straw

Jackie created the No Plastic Straws movement when she founded The Last Plastic Straw in 2011 as a volunteer project for Save Our Shores. The Last Plastic Straw has been a project of Plastic Pollution Coalition since 2016.

She is a part time kayak guide, full time activist, and lives in Santa Cruz, California, where she teaches people of all ages how to speak truth to plastic and be an agent for change in their communities. She has advised on more than 20 local ordinances limiting single-use food ware including plastic straws, and on the historic Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2020.

Jackie has a BS in Health and a AS in Horticulture, and has a passion for travel, ocean sports, design, gardening, the environment, and community service. Jackie is a frequent speaker at international conferences, in the press, and was featured in the award-winning documentary Straws.

Executive Director Plastic Oceans Intl

Julie is the Founder & Global Executive Director of Plastic Oceans International, working to end plastic pollution. She has worked in public health and nonprofit management internationally for the past 20 years in the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry & Cell Biology and her Masters in Public Health. Julie’s career has focused on the effective communication of information to improve and safeguard human health as well as the environment against the negative effects of industrial development.

Julie was raised in San Diego where the ocean was part of her daily lifestyle as a swimmer and triathlete. When not working to protect the ocean, she is spending time with her husband and 2 sons traveling and exploring.

KATIE loves wild places. Born and raised in South Yorkshire, on the edge of the Peak District, she graduated from Bournemouth University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Safety, Health and Environmental Management.

After graduating Katie followed her passion for conservation and stewardship of our natural environment, and focused on delivering educational training and implementing environmental management systems for businesses, specialising in the food, drink, and manufacturing industries. Her work has taken her to all four corners of the UK and across Europe. Katie has worked across all sectors of business in her consultancy roles, for non for profit organisations, private  industry, local government, and the Environment Agency.

She has lobbied government on many issues related to packaging and waste legislation and has regulated and licenced producers, reprocessors and compliance schemes in line with the fulfilment of the Producer Responsibility Regulations for Packaging, Batteries and Waste Electronics.

Katie has a diverse history of non-profit work, from advocating and fundraising for wounded veterans in the UK and USA, community engagement with under privileged children in Marrakesh, and more recently she has pledged her commitment to help rebuild the Children of the Universe orphanage, destroyed in the April 2015 Nepal earthquakes.

No stranger to expedition life, in 2010 Katie got the bug for high altitude exploration when she trekked to Everest Base Camp, through the Khumbu Valley of Nepal. Last summer she reached her highest point to date when she summited Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain, and one of the 7 Summits.

Now based in the South West of England, Katie founded the Intention Project in 2015,  a platform that inspires change through engaging, educating, and empowering people to focus their Intention to create a  sustainable future. Katie is a firm believer that we all have a unique gift to share with the world, and she is passionate about connecting people with their unique purpose, to unlock and reach their full potential.

When she’s not exploring, Katie loves all pursuits that allow her to be creative, anything from painting and jewellery design to yoga, blogging and cooking. Clean living is her highest priority, and Katie hopes that through eXXpedition she can better understand the implications of this up and down the food chain, and also champion more conscious consumer choices amongst her peers.

Katie is a proud and passionate Plant Powered athlete, and as Head Chef aboard Sea Dragon, she is excited to show off the benefits of a clean, organic, plant based diet. Our mental and physical well-being all start with our food choices, and Katie is keen to explore and carry out research into the diet and lifestyle choices of the crew, to compare the levels of pesticides present in their bodies before setting sail and again after docking in Recife, following a 23 day ‘sea-tox’

Katie believes that connecting people to the natural environment through the power of story telling and creating a dialogue around the unseen affects of ocean pollution, and the affect this has on human health and wellbeing is critical to the future of conservation. Only when people realise their own health is damaged when the health of the oceans are damaged, will people take responsibility and act to instigate change.

Marine litter matchmaker

Sector manager at SALT Lofoten AS.

From direct action to stop oil drilling in Norway to representing her country in International Climate negotiations, our latest recruit Malin is a girl with a global mission. Great to have you on board!

Malin Jacob is a Norwegian environmentalist. Currently she is studying political science at the University of Oslo, Norway, where she is writing her bachelor paper on environmental policy in the Arctic. Besides this she is also a blogger at Grønne Jenter (gronnejenter.no) (“Green Girls”), a blog by ten girls who focus on eco-friendly everyday life, consumer questions, and politics. In 2008, when she was 18 years old, she was awarded “Environmental Hero of the Year” by one of the largest newspapers in Norway (Aftenposten). The jury decided to award her on the background of her participation in stopping Hydro from drilling for oil along the southern coast of Norway. During the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Malin was the Norwegian youth delegate. She has also been a judge in a climate-based TV show on the Norwegian state channel, NRK.

After ten years as a desk based environmental activist, Malin found that she had to get out of the office and experience nature. She recently received a sponsorship spanning six months to write about outdoor activities, to raise awareness about nature, ecosystems, and climate change. Check out her web page: www.malinjacob.no. Malin has no sailing experience, and expects to spend quite some time over the gunwale, feeding the crabs. However, she also expects this will be the adventure of her life!

Campaigner, fundraiser

Nicola took a leap of faith to move her life from the North of England to the East Coast of Australia six years ago which also coincided with a career shift into a campaigning and social justice role. The collision of the two worlds, living with some of the world’s most pristine beaches on her doorstep whilst simultaneously witnessing the policy injustices preventing Aussies from keeping them safe, kicked off her interest in projects that serve to help fix our oceans. Nicola is the Australian regional lead GoFundMe fundraising and works with Australians to help them lead, and grow, grassroots and people led movements.

Humanitarian Aid Worker

Peggy is an enthusiastic scuba diver, data nerd and humanitarian aid worker. She is currently the Research Design and Data Unit Manager at the headquarters of IMPACT Initiatives, in Switzerland. However, she is in the process of transitioning into a career in marine conservation. Peggy is seeking opportunities that will allow her to assess the wellbeing and subsequent needs of coral reefs and marine life, as well as the human populations dependent upon the ocean.

After graduating from a master program in Public Policy and Human Development at the United Nations University, Peggy went on to pursue a career in humanitarian aid. Having cultivated a research mindset, Peggy found IMPACT Initiatives – a leading research think-tank, seeking to provide decision makers with relevant, inter-sectoral data and analysis to facilitate evidence-based planning. Having spent several years in Afghanistan and Iraq, working on a range of needs assessments including food security and drought-related studies, Peggy eventually realised that she needed to expand her career into the field of climate change. This has led to an increased focus on ocean plastics, ultimately leading to her joining eXXpedition’s South Africa Virtual Voyage crew.

In her free time, Peggy takes any opportunity she can to travel, scuba, hike or read. She hopes to continue learning how to sail, with the dream of heading out on a non-virtual ocean voyage as soon as possible.

SIMONE read a book in college called Our Bodies, Ourselves now published in 30 languages. It was revolutionary. Published by 12 women in the late 1960’s it discussed women’s bodies, health and sexuality which challenged the medical establishment of the day.

It also changed the patient doctor relationship for the better for everyone in the U.S. Since then I decided I wanted to do something that made a positive impact on people’s lives and realized progress for women is fought for, usually by women.

Finding strong women role models making big changes like those authors would be very inspiring. After short jobs with the U.S Forest Service, commercial fishing, abalone and sea cucumber diving in Alaska Simone worked in video production.

She began making in-kind promotional videos and public service announcements for charities, T.V and non-broadcast. Simone became a Board Member of the local women’s shelter and the United Way of Anchorage which helped her find out about the needs in the community.

One example is Susan Butcher who won the Iditarod consecutively, a 1,500 mile sled dog race in the freezing Alaska wilderness and climbing Denali aka Mt. Mckinley by dog sled. Simone’s most memorable endeavors were a T.V news style program called Young Alaskans where the positive achievements of teenagers were highlighted, a promotional video for a charity Moving Mountains in Kenya to assist Nairobi’s street children to attend school and Kham Aid Foundation to help marginalized Tibetans living in the Autonomous Region of Tibet.

Although she has not worked in the video industry for some time since she is raising two home birthed boys, she is still involved in the community. Most recent hosting a fundraiser to assist sex trafficked women and supporting a center for abused children.

Simone is very inspired about the research, message and achievements of the other crew with eXXpedition. This is the first time her activist spirit combines with her hobby of sailing. When not cruising with the family in the summer Simone takes care of her eighty-nine year old mother and runs an art gallery in Sarasota, Florida.

Since then she decided she wanted to do something that made a positive impact on people’s lives and realized progress for women is fought for, usually by women.

Her goals are to learn about the ocean research so that I may be able to do the same with her family on their Camper Nicholson 35 foot sailboat. She also hopes to assist with the video needs and increase her sailing knowledge to prepare for her Yachtmaster Offshore and Ocean exam.

Simone will be teaming with Suncoast Waterkeeper during the next year to raise awareness about the toxics in our seas. Based out of Sarasota, Florida it has a similar mission to eXXpedition. Suncoast Waterkeeper is protecting and restoring Florida Suncoast’s waterways through enforcement, fieldwork, advocacy, and environmental education for the benefit of the communities that rely upon these precious coastal resources.