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"Writing"

Writer

CAROL a humanitarian, researcher and writer, who believes we can change the world for the better. Carol works on global health and earth health and her main work is for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) working on migration and climate and health issues. Carol has also done marine debris collection in the Arctic and Antarctic, creating a Sciart project and exhibit “Aquamess”, which was inspired by these two expeditions. Carol led the first civilian clean up expedition to the Antarctic in 1995-6 with The Russian Antarctic Expedition and joined the early civilian clean up expedition, Clean Up Svalbard, in 2015.

Carol is keen to be part of the marine debris survey around Great Britian, the Scottish leg in particular. She loves that eXXpedition links exploring marine debris and women’s health, and contributes to scientific understanding of anthropogenic ocean pollution. Carol wants to stretch herself to learn more about sailing and is looking forward to engaging with communities and getting involved with sciart along the way.

Writer, Artist and Wildlife Rehabilitator

Erica Cirino is a writer, artist and wildlife rehabilitator who explores the intersection of the human and nonhuman worlds. Her work is focused on the human connection to nature–wild creatures in particular–and human impact on planet Earth.

As a writer, Erica covers stories about wildlife and the environment, most often related to biology, conservation and policy. Her stories appear in Scientific American, VICE, Ars Technica, Audubon, The Atlantic, New Scientist, The Revelator, Hakai Magazine, Oceans Deeply, Proto and other popular science publications.

As an artist, Erica creates works that conjure human emotions toward the nonhuman world. She is an award-winning photographer and mixed-media creator who combines her artistic finesse with her knowledge of wildlife physiology and ecology to devise striking, thoughtful works focused on wild beings and landscapes.

Currently, Erica is focused on covering stories about the global plastic pollution crisis—from documenting plastic in different ecosystems, to investigating the latest science measuring the extent of the issue, to new solutions that could prevent further ecological destruction and harm to wildlife. Her work covering the story of plastic pollution has taken her sailing twice across the Pacific, in Danish waters, and around Iceland; to Southeast Asia, across the U.S. and Western Europe; the Caribbean; Polynesia and beyond. Erica gives lectures about her experiences reporting these stories in the field around the world.

One of Erica’s major creative inspirations is her role as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who has spent many years in the clinical setting. Over the past 11+ years, Erica has helped treat thousands of sick, orphaned and injured wild animals for their eventual release into the wild. She specializes in treating birds of prey, such as hawks, owls and falcons.

Through her writing, art and wildlife rehabilitation work, Erica hopes to foster human care, conversation and, perhaps, kinship with the nonhuman world.

Writer and Designer

Hailing from the American South, Esther lives and writes on a 35’ sailboat named Hope with her artist husband, Michael, and their cat, Bowie. A former assistant professor in creative writing with over 20 years of experience in education, she is the author of the chapbook, Blank Missives, and two poetry collections titled Spit and Sacrificial Metal. Along with working with The Green Boater TV and the National Wildlife Federation, she has contributed her skills to schools and organizations (i.e. Emory University, Basecamp, Designlab) and recently collaborated with Sierra Club to develop their first plastic reduction toolkit, which offers a step-by-step guide for enacting plastic reduction ordinances in local communities. 

When she’s not involved in creative pursuits or boat projects, she is learning to become a more confident sailor! Esther is particularly excited to join eXXpedition’s community and to work alongside a multidisciplinary crew of amazing women working towards solving plastic pollution.

Writer & Consultant

Jeanine started cleaning up beaches when she was 10 years old. Her grandparents gave her the gift of water and mountain exploration early on and she has been forever grateful and protective of both ever since. She writes through green coloured glasses to inspire others and take on consulting projects that make a positive impact on our environment and human health and for her clients. Consistent themes threaded throughout her professional and personal lives are – to stay hopeful, work collaboratively on solutions to make positive changes and lead by action not by words.

Personal Development Coach & Writer

Kay Newton is the founder of Midlife Strategies, an author and an award-winning speaker. She is an acknowledged expert in guiding women over 50 to find simplicity by ditching mental and physical baggage.

In 2015 after a 30-year luxury Spanish lifestyle, Kay and her husband decided to have ‘no nest’. The couple moved to a two-roomed, tin-roof house near a pristine beach in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Kay now lives a simple life next to a beach in Mallorca, Spain.

Kay’s motivation for joining the Virtual Voyage is to learn about microplastic pollution, its effects upon the oceans and to women at menopause.

Writer

Ky Delaney is a writer, lawyer, mother, adventurer, and environmentalist. She’s currently writing her first book, AFLOAT, about becoming a skipper to take her four-year-old son sailing in the Caribbean, and collecting water samples for a microplastics study along the way.

She lives in the mountains of North Carolina where she explores whitewater rivers with her son.

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!

Law Student

Law Student currently working for ELSA Norway and working on Law Students Without Borders Worldwide and Norway

RIGMOR has not got much sailing experience except from a whole lot of ferries in the western part of Norway, and occasional fishing trips with dinghys. Nevertheless, she’s raised along the Sognefjord in Norway, and have always loved the nature and especially the ocean. Living in Kristiansand near the ocean for several years has also made her deeply passionate about the ocean. A course in surfing in Hawaii sparked an interest of surfing.

In High School Rigmor studied Biology and Anatomy/Physiology, and went along with one year of Biology at the University of Agder. After a couple of years working in nursing, she changed career path to Law, and is currently a second year Law student at the University of Agder. In the summer of 2015, Rigmor studied ‘Introduction to English Law’ at the University of Exeter. Rigmor also took a course by ELSA in Copenhagen ‘Media Law in the 21th Century’.

Rigmor hope to make up for the lack of sailing experience by being reporting and writing about the eXXpedition trip on social media and in her online magazine iiinspiratus.com.

She hopes to bring awareness to this hidden and underdiscussed topic – pollution and the use of plastics and the consequences it has on the ocean and in us humans. Rigmor want to inspire others to reduce – reuse and recycle plastic, but also find alternatives to plastic, such as bamboo – by writing and discussing the topic in her lifestyle magazine iiinspiratus.com and in social media. Additionally, Rigmor want to bring awareness about microplastic that exist in a lot of cosmetic products.

Rigmor would like to combine the passion for the ocean and Law in the future, and advocating for a healthy ocean.

Writer and Sailor

SARAH started sailing as a child in dinghies and got into bigger boats in her 30’s.  She has owned two yachts, living aboard and skippering her 12-metre ketch Roaring Girl for nearly 10 years.  Sarah sailed her from eastern England to the Mediterranean and through Morocco, Spain and Italy to Malta and back.  In 2016 she sailed on Bark Europa for two months from Punta Arenas to Cape Town via Antarctica and is experienced in sail handling, watch keeping, navigation and weather.

Sarah is a writer and sailor, and works in environmental and public services. She writes a lot, both policy and fiction, about climate, pollution and the ocean.  Sarah hopes to bring experience in presenting complex issues in ways that stimulate people’s passions and imagination and will create a blog telling the crew’s stories and a follow-on from the Europa story at www.sailingtoantarctica.com. Sarah is looking forward to visiting and revisiting the British coast, and meeting amazing women along the way – “I am delighted to have the opportunity to be part of a mission which both collects data and highlights some of the challenges to our oceans and shores”.  Sarah will be joining all three legs of our Round Britain voyage.

Storyteller and Strategist

Based in the United States, Victoria has lived on both the East and West coasts – but always stayed close to the ocean because of her love of the water. She is a writer by trade and storyteller at heart. During her career, she has written for newspapers, magazines, and marketing campaigns. She has partnered with brands to educate their customers about their sustainability initiatives and hopes to continue working with brands to make a difference. She believes that storytelling is a powerful tool that can affect change.

Writer

Professor Emerita at the University of Florida and kayak/paddle/board/sailing devotee

WHITNEY spent her childhood summers playing in the tidal areas of Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia. When she moved to Florida, it was like coming home to an ecosystem she loved and missed. Florida’s rivers, barriers islands, springs, and ocean waters are their wilderness, and she and her husband Kevin spend as much time as possible exploring the waters by SUP, kayak, and sailboat. Whitney has kayak camped in the Keys and the 10,000 Islands, surfed her kayak in the Atlantic, and has recently learned to SUP surf. Whitney and Kevin and are longtime volunteers with Paddle Florida. Even though Florida is blessed with what looks like an abundance of water, its rivers, springs, and aquifer are threatened by pollution and over-consumption, among other things. So while she enjoys playing and surfing, she also works protect Florida’s waters.

When Whitney am not paddling, surfing, or sailing, she is a faculty member in the Religion Department at the University of Florida. She teaches and conducts research in UF’s Religion and Nature program, a unit that both asks how religious traditions understand the natural world and how religious traditions are responding to environmental crises such as pollution and climate change. Her classes, including Religion and Sustainability and Women and Religion, help students understand the various dimensions of human relationships to the natural world and our obligations to it and each other. Her work lies at the intersection of religion, environment, and social justice.

She recently completed a book entitled Being the Change: What I Learned from Intentional Community (Forthcoming, University of Kentucky Press, 2017) that explores how communities come together to live sustainably and harmoniously. She is just beginning a project on the ecoheritage of the St. Johns River in Florida which explores why communities, past and present, have come to love and protect the river and her springs. Whitney plans to start ethnographic and historical research on this project in spring 2016.

Whitney is interested in how environmental degradation affects people differentially, and women often bear the brunt of pollution, for example, especially in developing countries. She hopes to learn more about these issues in a transnational context and is eager to work with a diverse team on the issue of women and water. In Florida, the Caribbean, and beyond, we face enormous problems around water, and some refer to these as “wicked problems”, meaning that they are difficult to solve and require multiple solutions and approaches. Working with others and learning new viewpoints will help her own work, and Whitney will bring what she has learned to her research and to her students at the University of Florida.