Susan Adie

Susan grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York and summered in the Adirondacks. Her parents, with their love of nature, guided her in discovering her passion in all things wild. Susan graduated the Community College of the Finger Lakes, specializing in Natural Resources Conservation and then went on to get her BS from Cornell University. In her early career, she wrote educational radio programs for the CU Lab of Ornithology, worked to develop curriculum for grade school and led teacher training workshops for the US Fish and Wildlife Services through the National Wildlife Refuge System. Following this work, in 1985, she created a not-for-profit organization, Northwind Nature Education Opportunities, which developed training materials and workshops for teachers and students. Her efforts gained recognition by the National Wildlife Federation which honored her as the Outdoor Educator of the Year in 1987.

In 1990, Susan went to sea as an educator, first traveling to Alaska and then further north into Russia, Canada and Greenland. Initially, her role was as a naturalist lecturer which eventually led to a career as Expedition Leader. She has lead several hundred ship based expeditions including The Circumnavigation of the Arctic (3x) and North Pole Expeditions (7x) all on Russian vessels. Her experience includes expeditions to Svalbard, Kamchatka to Japan, the Canadian Arctic, and Greenland. Her naturalist and leadership skills resulted in opportunities to work in remote tropical locations also, such as the Amazon, Galapagos, South Pacific (Central), Madagascar, Africa and South America. While most of her time has been spent in the Peninsula of Antarctica, she has also been as Expedition Leader for several seasons in the Ross Sea sector.

From 2010 – 2020, Susan was the Expedition Operations Manager and Expedition Leader for the 130 passenger polar vessel. She designed and implemented dozens of environmentally focused itineraries. She hired, trained and managed more than 130 expedition staff and has been instrumental in moving the ship operations and the industry towards greater responsibility in ecologically sustainable tourism by stopping the use of one-use plastics and serving sustainable seafood in food services. She has created a massive fundraising effort on board the vessel to help support various conservation programs and worked with both the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) and the Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) to develop guidelines for safe and environmentally responsible tourism in the polar regions. For 8 years, she was Chair of the Field Operations Committee within IAATO. For he dedication to environmentally responsible traveled, she was honored with the naming of a cove in Antarctica Adie Cove is on the west side of the Antarctica peninsula.

In semi-retirement now, Susan consults to several companies in the planning and delivery of their product in the Arctic Northwest Passage and in Antarctica. She serves on the Board of Governors as the President of the American Polar Society and sits on the board of the Galapagos Whale Shark Project. In her free time, she spends it in the forested mountains of North America continuing to spend time in the wild lands that remain.