Gemina Garland-Lewis

Gemina Garland-Lewis is a Seattle-based photographer, EcoHealth researcher, and National Geographic Explorer with experience in over 30 countries across six continents. She first picked up a camera when she was 12 years old and proceeded to spend the better part of high school in the darkroom in her hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both her photography and research explore the myriad connections between humans, animals, and their shared environments. She is passionate about integrating the worlds of visual storytelling and research to develop new ways of communicating social and environmental issues to broader audiences and building unique platforms for education and outreach. She is a past recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, during which she spent a year of travel in seven countries focusing on different cultural relationships with whales and whaling. She has worked as a trip leader and photography teacher for National Geographic Student Expeditions since 2010, leading in Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Tanzania, and Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks. Her photography and writing have been featured by National Geographic News, National Geographic Adventure, and REI, among others.

Gemina completed her Master’s degree in Conservation Medicine at Tufts University in 2013 and continues to work part-time with the Center for One Health Research at the University of Washington, where she focuses on health and disease issues at the human-animal-environment interface. She is an avid outdoor adventurer and environmental stewardship advocate who is often found somewhere in the mountains or on the ocean, chasing the light with a silly grin on her face.