Plan A.

Dr. Haliehana Stepetin (Unangax̂, Qigiiĝun Tribe) was born and raised in her homelands/waters in the village of Akutan, Alaska in Unangam Tanangin [Aleutian Islands]. She weaves together her transdisciplinary experience deeply shaped by the Unangax̂ subsistence cosmology she was raised within as an artist and scholar. Dr. Stepetin is an Assistant Professor of Arctic Security Studies at the Ted Stevens Center. She has a Ph.D. in Native American Studies with a designated emphasis in Studies in Performance and Practice from the University of California Davis (2023). She has a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies from the University of Washington Bothell (2018) and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with a concentration on Russia (2016) from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her research considers Unangax̂ and Arctic Indigenous Peoples’ roles in sustainable food sovereignty and environmental practices amidst a changing climate.

Kendra MacDonald is the CEO for Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC), responsible for driving the sustainable growth of Canada's Ocean Economy. Along with the OSC team, Kendra is passionately committed to raising awareness of Canada’s ocean opportunity and role as an ocean nation. Kendra was previously a partner in Deloitte’s Atlantic Risk Advisory practice and the Chief Audit Executive of Deloitte Global.

Sohvi Kangasluoma is a postdoctoral researcher at Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. Currently, she works in an Academy of Finland project "Rethinking International Relations in an Era of the Planetocene: Case Arctic Ocean Up to 2050." In the project, she concentrates especially on the role of ice in redefining human-nature relations within the changing Arctic Ocean. Most of her research takes place aboard the sailing vessel Lumi, which also serves as her home. In the summer of 2024, she will sail the Northwest Passage from Alaska to Greenland, and conduct autoethnographic research about the role of ice in the passage. Sohvi holds a Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki, awarded in 2023.

Eilif Bremer Landsend is a filmmaker from Tromsø, Norway. He has made short films, music videos, TV-documentaries and a feature film, Dive, which launched with a sold-out premiere at Tromsø International Film Festival in 2015. Eilif’s films have been shot around the world, from Arctic Norway, to a boxing club in Uganda, to the Namibian desert. Besides making his own films, Eilif likes to inspire young people to make movies by facilitating film workshops.

Esther Horvath is a photographer, documenting scientific expedition and climate research in the polar regions. She is a contributor photographer for National Geographic, a Nikon Ambassador and photographer for the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.

Esther is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and a member of the Explorers Club.

In 2022, she received the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in New York for her work in raising awareness about conservation, environmental justice and climate change.

Esther won the 1st price in World Press Photo Award, Environmental single category in 2020.

Esther has received the Ranger Rick Photographer of the Year 2020 from National Wildlife Federation for advancing together the Ranger Rick magazine’s mission: to inspire a love and understanding of wildlife and the natural world in young children.

Anita Holmgren is an early-career marine biologist working with Wild Lab Projects, a nonprofit organization working with nature conservation, citizen science and regenerative traveling in Northern Norway. One of the topics she works with is kelp forest restoration.