Dr. Sian Proctor
Dr. Sian Proctor is a geoscientist, explorer, space artist, and science communication specialist with a passion for space exploration. She was selected as the pilot on the SpaceX Crew Dragon mission Inspiration4, planned for late 2021.
She appeared on The Colony Season 2, which was aired on The Discovery Channel in 2010, in the 2016 PBS series Genius By Stephen Hawking on "Episode 2: Are We Alone?” and is currently featured on the science show Strange Evidence. On July 22, 2020, Dr Proctor was announced as one of the top-15 finalists of UAE Mars Shot contest. She was recently selected as one of The Explorer’s Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World.
She uses her AfronautSpace art to encourage conversations about women of color in the space industry. She’s an analog astronaut and has completed four analog missions including the all-female SENSORIA Mars 2020 mission at the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Habitat, the NASA funded 4-months Mars mission at HI-SEAS, a 2-weeks Mars mission at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), and a 2-weeks Moon mission in the LunAres Habitat.
Dr. Proctor was a finalist for the 2009 NASA Astronaut Program and got down to the Yes/No phone call which came from Astronaut Sunita Williams.
She has a TEDx talk called Eat Like a Martian and published the Meals for Mars Cookbook. Dr. Proctor is a continuing NASA Solar System Ambassador and serves on the Explore Mars Board of Directors, JustSpace Alliance Advisory Board, the Science in the Wild Advisory Board, the SEDS USA Advisory Board, and the National Science Teaching Association’s Aerospace Advisory Board.
In 2019, she was the science communication outreach officer on the JOIDES Resolution Expedition 383 and spent 2-months at sea with researchers investigating the Dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. She also participated in the 2-week faculty development seminar Exploring Urban Sustainability in India. She was a 2017 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Teacher at Sea, a 2016 Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador (ACEAP), and a 2014 PolarTREC Teacher investigating climate change in Barrow, Alaska. She is a Major in the Civil Air Patrol and serves as a member of the Arizona Wing Aerospace Education Officer.
3 words to describe Nature?
Transformative. Spiritual. Breathtaking
3 things Nature taught you?
Focus
Determination
Resiliency
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Standing by the ocean
Flying looking out the window
Standing on a mountain summit
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Happy
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Overwhelmed by life
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
In awe of the geologic time
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Content
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Excited
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel...?
Lifted
Are you an OCEAN, MOUNTAIN, FOREST, or DESERT person?
All of them
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I loved fishing in a small pond in New Hampshire. I would fish for hours every day all summer long - catch and release.
Kelly Alvarez Doran
Kelly Alvarez Doran is an architect and climate activist. A native of Winnipeg - Kelly has learned and worked across the world over the past two decades and currently calls London, UK home. Professionally Kelly has worked with MASS Design Group (Kigali), SvN (Toronto), and WilliamsonWilliamson (Toronto), and Severson Monteyne (Winnipeg). His focus on climate-positive design architecture and the disproportionate impact the built environment has on climate change has shaped his design approach. He has led the design of award-winning projects - notably Munini District Hospital and Rwanda Ministry of Health’s Typical Hospital Plans; the headquarters for both One Acre Fund and Andela in Kenya; and the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture. Kelly is a graduate of the University of Manitoba, the University of Toronto, a recipient of the Canada Council’s Prix de Rome for Emerging Practitioners. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto and has previously held teaching positions at The Bartlett, Harvard University, and the University of Waterloo.
3 words to describe Nature?
Replenishing. Complex. Intrinsic
3 things Nature taught you?
We are all intrinsically connected - socially, biologically, and ecologically.
Nature's nature is to constantly adapt - it will outlast humanity.
We are a part of nature and thrive when working within the natural systems we emerged within.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Manitoba's Prairie grassland
An Algonquin Park campsite
An Essex estuary
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Connected to the power of nature.
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Closer to the endless cycles of growth and decay.
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Like an inconsequential collection of biological material.
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Connected to the cosmos.
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Nostalgic for a prairie thunderstorm
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel...?
Nostalgic for a prairie winter's night
Are you an OCEAN, MOUNTAIN, FOREST, or DESERT person?
Prairie
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
8
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Endless hours spent traveling across the prairie to the small farming community where my grandparent's lived - looking out the car window at the long, flat, prairie horizon and the ocean of different colors across the fields, meadows, ditches, and forests along the way has created a deep appreciation for how much we've transformed the landscape to our own ends, and how we must now break out of the mindset of dominion and return to one deeply connected to the natural rhythms and cycles of the landscapes we inhabit.
Luca Parmitano
Luca Parmitano is an Italian astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA) with 366 days in space, more than any ESA astronaut in history. He is the youngest non-Russian astronaut to undertake a long-duration mission and first-ever Italian International Space Station commander. Luca was awarded a Silver Medal to the Aeronautical Valour by the President of the Italian Republic in 2007 and was recognized a ‘Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica’ by the President of the Italian Republic in 2013. On August 13, 2019, Parmitano became the first DJ in space when he played a set of electronic music from the ISS for a music festival audience in Ibiza.
3 words to describe Nature?
Life. Water. Energy
3 things Nature taught you?
Resilience
Humility
Compassion
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The rocky beaches in Sicily
The wooded area in my parent's land, up on mount Etna
The 'Stagno of San Teodoro'
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Alive
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Happy
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Home
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Pensive
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...?
Energetic
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel...?
Like reading a book
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was a child, my father would dive in apnea to collect sea urchins, because my mother loved the rich, orange meat inside. I never cared too much for their taste, but as soon as I learned to hold my breath long enough to dive with my father, I would go with him... not to hunt, but to share that silent time and space with him, underwater, where this infinitely strange world would be ours only.
Loretta Whitesides
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides is a Founder Astronaut at Virgin Galactic, mother of two, wife to George T. Whitesides, and author of The New Right Stuff: Using Space to Bring out the Best in You. Loretta studied astrobiology at Stanford and Caltech, did research on plant life in the Canadian Arctic with NASA, dove to the bottom of the ocean with Titanic Director James Cameron, and has floated weightless hundreds of times as a Flight Director for Zero Gravity Corporation. She and her husband are the Co-Creators of Yuri's Night, the annual Worldwide Space Party celebrating the dual Russian and U.S. space anniversaries on April 12. She currently teaches leadership and personal development for the space community through her SpaceKind Training Program which evolved from the New Right Stuff training program she led at Virgin Galactic for five years.
3 words to describe Nature?
Elegant. Closed-loop. Soul-filling
3 things Nature taught you?
Trees are incredibly generous
You don't need to "waste" anything
We need natural systems to thrive
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Redwood forests
On a rock next to a mountain stream
On a mountain looking down on a fog bank
When you look at the OCEAN, it makes you feel...?
Fragile, insignificant, held (I believe the ocean holds are memories)
When you see a FOREST, it makes you feel...?
Calm, grounded, loved
When you see a VOLCANO, it makes you feel...?
Primal, powerful, grateful
When you see a SUNRISE or SUNSET, it makes you feel...?
Blessed, full-hearted, quiet
When you hear THUNDER, it makes you feel...? *
Excited, powerful, expansive
When you hear the WIND HOWLING, it makes you feel…?
Connected to my friend Andrew Hopping who loves the wind, hunkered down, humbled
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountains and forests
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was about 14, our girl's group at my summer camp was challenged to do a 24 solo- as though we were lost during a hike- just shorts and a t-shirt in Northern California. It was pretty demanding, alone, cold, hungry, but I survived and was SO PROUD of myself! I always push others to let kids do things that are hard and scary so they can have that experience that they can do more than they think.
Veronica Speck
Veronica Speck began her career in New York City at publishing houses including Condé Nast and Hearst. In 2010, while in the Special Events Department of Vogue, she assisted in the planning of the “American Woman” Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Leveraging her experience in the art world, Veronica joined Bernardaud as the global Director of Public Relations, promoting artist collaborations and limited-edition objets d’art with Jeff Koons, Vik Muniz, JR, Marina Abramovic, Julian Schnabel, David Lynch, The Campana Brothers, Sarah Lavoine, and the Alexander Calder, Joan Miro, and Marc Chagall Foundations. She also formed strategic partnerships with MoMA, MoCA, Sotheby’s, and Gagosian, and hosted press events during Art Basel, Bocuse D’Or, Design Miami/, Frieze, Maison et Objet, and partnered with Architectural Digest to design the 2015 Academy Awards Greenroom with Commune Design.
In 2018, Veronica oversaw the opening of The Future Perfect’s galleries in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and managed all exhibition openings, art fair participation, press, marketing, and events during Art Basel, Frieze, Salon Art + Design Fair, NYCxDesign, Design Miami/, and New York Fashion Week. She also hosted affinity partnership events with The New York Time’s T Magazine to celebrate their annual “Greats” Issue, Fendi’s ‘Made to Order’ program, as well as with Ruinart, Hermès Art de la Table, Puiforcat, Le Labo, Aesop, Vogue 100, and many more.
In 2019, She joined Michelin-starred Chef Daniel Boulud as the global Head of Brand Marketing and Public Relations and helped raise over 1 million dollars for City Meals on Wheels during the annual Sunday Supper Gala at Restaurant Daniel. Le Pavillon restaurant at One Vanderbilt in New York City, designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfield, is the latest venture set to open in 2021.
In 2020, VHS Ventures was established in New York and California with international operations in Asia, Europe, and South America. Current clients range from Ferrari and Fine Art to Fragrance and Fine Jewelry. VHS is a Founding Partner of luxury fragrance brand Maison d’ Etto.
3 words to describe Nature?
Calming. Intriguing. Vast.
3 things Nature taught you?
Appreciation
Gratitude
Hope
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The Torrey Pines State Reserve in La Jolla, CA, which is dedicated to preserving its namesake, the Torrey Pine (Pinus Torreyana) tree, and other indigenous wildlife in its native environment. The tree only grows there and on Santa Rosa Island off the coast of Santa Barbara. The hike to the top affords views of the Pacific Ocean and the cliffs of Blacks Beach, which are reminiscent of the Algarve in Portugal. It is also next to Torrey Pines Golf Course, one of the most beautiful golf courses (in my opinion). Big Sur, Muir Redwoods, Lake Tahoe, and Palm Springs desert in California are also special.
The Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The last time I was there, it was turtle nesting season, and watching hundreds of baby turtles make their way to the sea from the sand was magical.
The Mighty 5 National Parks in Utah—Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion. Hiking amongst the red Hoodoo rocks is reminiscent of Mars (not that I have been…yet!) Afterward, rent a boat and explore Lake Powell and enjoy a restorative stat at Amangiri in the desert.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Peaceful and nostalgic. I grew in San Diego, California so the ocean will always hold a special place in my heart. Swimming, surfing, scuba diving, sailing, parasailing, kitesurfing, snorkeling or simply watching the sun rise or set.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Curious. I love to explore and look through the trees for wildlife or up towards the sky for birds. I spent hours in the cloud forests of Costa Rica.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Adventurous and energized. I hiked Volcanoes National Park in Hawai'i after it erupted a few years ago, and was truly in awe of the natural landscapes and black sand beaches made of basalt and formed from hot lava clashing with the ocean water.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Renewed, restored, romantic.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Excited. I love thunderstorms, especially tropical ones. I took it for granted growing up, but San Diego has nearly perfect weather year-round so I naturally crave the opposite and love the excitement of storms. I was in New York during Hurricane Irene and Sandy and still remember the sound of the thunder, rain, and wind.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Attentive, Perceptive, Thoughtful. Ideally, I am curled up inside next to a cozy fire, and listening to the sounds outside.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
My father has dedicated the majority of his life to caring for animals and the environment. I grew up next to horse and polo ranches, orange and avocado groves, and vineyards, and with exotic pets my father rescued. Boa Constrictors, Tarantulas, Macaw Parrots, African Grey Parrots, African Spur Tortoise, Chinchillas, and even a saltwater aquarium with small sharks, an octopus, living coral, and exotic fish. I celebrated many birthdays as a child at Sleepovers at the San Diego Zoo where guests could spend the night at a campsite and view the nocturnal animals on a guided tour.
My grandparents are European and when they moved to Los Angeles, they became members of a historic health and wellness retreat from the 1800s called Warner Springs Ranch because the therapeutic natural hot springs and rural beauty reminded them of Bohemia and Moravia. My favorite childhood memories include weekends and holidays spent with family riding horses, golfing, playing tennis, swimming, and exploring the grounds.
