Kendra grew up just outside Chicago, where she spent much of her childhood in the water, swimming and playing water polo. Family vacations sparked her adventurous spirit early, whether dog sledding in Yellowstone, whitewater rafting in Montana or biking down Haleakala Crater in Hawaii. Annual road trips to Kiawah Island, South Carolina, brought opportunities to kayak through coastal marshes, searching for seashells and keeping an eye out for alligators.

While attending Santa Clara University, Kendra spent a semester abroad in Spain, an experience that cemented her love of travel. After college, her sense of adventure eventually brought her to Colorado, where she now lives with her husband, daughter and son. Together, they spend as much time outdoors as possible, camping, hiking, biking and running.

Over the years, Kendra’s travels have increasingly drawn her to the world’s wild places and remarkable wildlife. She has cage-dived with great white sharks off Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, searched for polar bears in Churchill, trekked to see mountain gorillas in Uganda and witnessed the Great Migration in East Africa. Her adventures have also taken her from Greenland and Alaska to the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon, the gray whale lagoons of Baja California and the wildlife-rich landscapes of southern Africa.

The more she travels, the more curious she becomes about wildlife and animal behavior. She continues to deepen her knowledge through nature documentaries, often with her kids watching alongside her—and some of her most meaningful adventures are now the ones she shares with them. In the Galapagos, Kendra found as much joy in watching her children encounter sea lions up close as she did in experiencing the islands’ extraordinary wildlife, especially as her children began to understand the importance of protecting wild places.

Kendra is on a mission to experience as much of the wild world as possible, and to inspire the next generation to love and protect it.