With a master's degree in physiology and a never-ending curiosity about the world around her, Jackie has a love of nature and the outdoors that has carried her through many challenging and exciting adventures. A far cry from her more conventional upbringing in southern Ontario and northern Scotland, Jackie’s expedition career kicked off in 2008 when she worked as first mate during a live-aboard sailing program for high school students in the tropical waters of the Caribbean. She spent the next 10 years sailing across open oceans and working in sailing-related tourism all over the globe. Her love of water intersected with her love for wildlife in the fjords of British Columbia when she came face to face with Ursus arctos — wild grizzly bears — on the shores of Knight Inlet in 2016. A new obsession took hold, and Jackie has since been skippering water-based grizzly bear tours in Canada's Great Bear Rainforest. Once grizzly season winds down, you'll find Jackie moving north to Churchill for a different kind of bear viewing—exploring the tundra ecosystem with Nat Hab guests, in search of polar bears and other Arctic wildlife.