Rosalie Haizlett is an illustrator who creates paintings that celebrate the natural world, with a focus on honoring the places and creatures that often go unnoticed. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Great Smoky Mountains National Park and with the National Audubon Society. She has taught nature-focused art workshops in schools, national parks, and REI stores, and has also instructed tens of thousands of students through her online courses. She is the author of Watercolor in Nature: Paint Woodland Wildlife and Botanicals with 20 Beginner-Friendly Projects and the forthcoming Tiny Worlds of the Appalachian Mountains: An Artist's Journey (September 2024). She lives in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. MORE

Catherine Hamilton began birding at an early age with her father, developing a keen interest in natural history and art. She loves sharing her passion for both with artists of all levels, and believes that anyone can gain insight and greater understanding of the world around them through field sketching and observation. A professional fine artist for more than 30 years, she also has illustrated and written articles for books and publications including The Warbler Guide, the journal Nature, Bird Watcher’s Digest, the ABA Blog, and Good Birders Still Don’t Wear White. She taught painting and drawing at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1997-2003, and is a frequent leader of birding tours. MORE

A principal leader and innovator of the worldwide nature journaling movement, John Muir Laws (aka Jack) is an award-winning naturalist, artist, author, scientist, and educator who has dedicated nearly four decades of his life to connecting people to nature through art and science. He is the author of several books, including the Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada, Sierra Birds, Sierra Wildflowers, and the Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. He has taught nature journaling for more than 4 decades, and his passion, curiosity, and generosity are legendary. MORE

Akshay's love for bugs blossomed in 2019 when he attended a "how to draw bugs" class by Dr. Stephanie Dole, a.k.a. BeetleLady, at the first-ever Wild Wonder Nature Journalino Conference in Monterey, CA. Through Dr. Stephanie and other bug mentors, he learned the importance of bugs in our ecosystem and realized that the fear and hate against them were unconscious biases developed through misrepresented bug villains in movies and media outlets. Once he viewed these fascinating creatures through a lens of curiosity, it gradually chipped away at his fear, giving way to admiration and love. "What we love, we want to protect," quotes Akshay. Since then, he has been creating comics, zines, illustrations, and nature journals on bug science, feeling the need to share his metamorphosis process to bring empathy, care, and an urgent sense of conservation to the captivating world of bugs. For his day job, Akshay works as an electrical and software engineer but constantly seeks opportunities to engage with our beloved journaling community in nature. MORE

Nina Sokolov is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley in Dr. Mike Boots' lab studying disease ecology in managed and native bees of California. She is interested in understanding how crop pollination events such as the almond bloom impact viral dynamics in pollinator systems. Specifically, she works on ranches and in gardens throughout Marin County studying honeybee and bumblebee viruses through time, and how management impacts their health. Additionally, she works in the Sierra studying virus dynamics in a sub-alpine wildflower pollinator system to understand the directionality of viral spillover between managed honeybees and native bees.

In addition to being a scientist, Nina is an artist that uses a range of traditional and digital mediums to illustrate the natural world. This comes from both being continuously creatively inspired by nature, and also using art as a way to understand natural phenomena more deeply. Armed with a microscope and pen in hand, she draws the unique and almost alien attributes of insects. Illustrating trains her observational skills and gives her "the eyes to see" the microscopic differences between species. With over 1,600 species of bees in California alone, art is an invaluable skill for her science as well. Currently she is working on a bee coloring book to educate people on the high diversity of native bees in California as a way to help inspire conservation of less well known species. MORE

Rob Wade is an award-winning place-based educator working in the Upper Feather River region of California’s northern Sierra Nevada. As the Outdoor Education and Science Coordinator for the Plumas County Office of Education since 1995, he has developed and implemented numerous successful and sustainable programs. A highlight of his work is Outdoor Core Mountain Kid, a K-12 collaborative that supports every teacher to integrate authentic weekly outdoor learning adventures for every student as part of a year-long local theme centered on inquiry and stewardship. In this program, field journaling is a foundational skill and activity for every student and every grade level. MORE