The Team

Roberta Kravette, Co-Founder

Roberta has been an entrepreneur since her early 20s, creating consumer and service businesses that incorporated the ideals of self-empowerment, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the United States and abroad, well before they became catchphrases. Her lifelong passion for travel and exploration led her to realize that while we strived to improve human well-being, we were simultaneously destroying our home, the Earth.

Roberta believes that learning, exploring, and personal growth are lifelong rights and that each of us has something to give. Great strides can be made through the passion of individuals and the drive of local and regional organizations, combined with the power of tourism done right. Roberta created Destination: Wildlife to directly support these local and regional biodiversity and conservation initiatives, while aiming to inspire, create awareness, forge connections, educate, and ensure that future generations know the joy that comes from time spent in the natural world

She is a proud member of the Explorers Club and ASTA, the American Society of Travel Advisors, and a yearly participant in the Scouts Explorer Badge program.

Les Medley, Co-Founder

Les Medley spent his young years exploring the Sawtooth Mountains, the Tetons, and other Western U.S. mountain ranges with his Granddad, who somehow taught a boy who could not sit still for two minutes to “see” nature and to “read” animal tracks, weather, and water surface patterns. He taught him to build a fire without matches, the importance of a good knife, and a world of other wilderness skills, and he instilled in him a lifelong respect for the wonder of it all. But it was his uncle who taught him to climb and his dad to sail.

His military father also introduced him to life in Japan, and his own military career took him to Germany, South America, and the Middle East. Les spent time as a mountain guide and climber and brings a passion for adventure in nature, combined with great respect and concern for both the world’s cultures and its biodiversity, to Destination: Wildlife.

Expedition Leader

Kristen Cooney, Expedition Leader

Kristen Cooney joined the Destination: Wildlife team in 2025. She grew up in New York and Pennsylvania, where adventures with the birds and animals in the forests and grasslands of the Mid-Atlantic region sparked her passion for wildlife conservation.

She is a Conservation and Finance Research Fellow, Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program, for the National Park Service, with responsibilities in two categories:

1) Assisting in project work for the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program, including technical assistance for projects helping communities reach their conservation and outdoor recreation goals. 2) Building capacity and conservation finance literacy with the federal staff, so that they can better help communities seek and acquire funding for their projects.

Kristen, an avid wildlife photographer, is a Girls Who Click ambassador. See her images on Instagram @KristenRosewild and in many Destination: Wildlife Journal entries.

When not leading or helping us plan expeditions, you might find Kristen in Southeast Alaska, monitoring Arctic Terns.

Consultants in the Field

Elise Boeger

Conservation and Birding Consultant
Specialist: Central Park, New York

My passion for wildlife, conservation, and nature was a constant theme throughout my career in magazine publishing (The New Yorker, Time Inc., and Smithsonian), and I’ve been involved with “eco-tourism” since its infancy, serving on numerous boards for Sustainable and Environmental tourism.

Today, I concentrate on education, advocacy, and involvement in environmental issues.

I have lived most of my adult life in New York with Central Park as my backyard (very thankful not to have to trim the lawn!), and there I began birding decades ago. Can’t wait to see what the winds bring in on a Spring morning. Or the owls during a snowy winter day. Or the changes of seasons through the magnificent trees. Or ….! My lifelong passion for animal rights extends to my kitchen; I don’t eat meat.

Being a “Birder” is about finding the connections throughout the natural world. What I love best is to follow those flying dots all over the globe.

Elise is a proud member of The Explorers Club, Linnaean Society, and NYC Audubon.

Jorn Vangoidtsenhoven

Award Winning Wildlife Photographer, America West

I love wildlife and most of all: keeping wildlife wild. Born in Belgium (Europe), I moved to the United States in 2003. After spending the next 15 years stuck in an office as a computer engineer, I switched careers and now live full-time on the road, traveling to wildlife destinations and writing about all things wildlife, with an emphasis on conservation and sustainable wildlife tourism. Highlights of recent trips include the American West, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, and Central America.

My photography and articles have been published in numerous online and offline publications, including Arizona Highways and Destination: Wildlife. I am a team member and writer at Destination: Wildlife. I have written several books on photography and my travels.

One of the world's largest competitions named me a Top 35 Wildlife Photographer in the World and a Top 35 Photographer in the USA (across all categories) in 2020. Jorn is the author of A Beginner’s Guide to Bird and Wildlife Photography.

See more of Jorn’s work at www.Vangophotos.com, Instagram @vangophotos, and at @destinationwildlife

Contributors

Gordon Ellmers

Bird and Wildlife Photographer, New York State

I live in the town where I grew up, Fort Edward, NY. I have been a practicing veterinarian for over 40 years. I loved to snow ski but back trouble forced me to quit.

I bought a digital camera to photograph X-rays so I could quickly email the images to radiologists for review. That led me to digital photography and my hobby.

I have been photographing wildlife for 20 years now. The Fort Edward grasslands are a great place to photograph wild birds such as short-eared owls, snowy owls, harriers and rough-legged hawks. I am married to a wonderful person named Lynn. @destinationwildlife and #gordonellmers

Gordie works closely as a volunteer with The Grassland Bird Trust to chronicle the resident, migratory and accidental birds and wildlife in this important habitat.

Mark Seth Lender

Story Teller, Poet, Wildlife Photographer

I am the Explorer in Residence at Living on Earth, nationally broadcast weekly on Public Radio. I base my segments on over three decades of fieldwork with wildlife across seven continents and present them on-air in my own voice.

My first book, Salt Marsh Diary, A Year on the Connecticut Shore (St. Martin's Press, 2011), is a chronicle of the astonishing array of wildlife I am witness to around my home. My new collection, Cardinal Points, True Stories of Life on Earth, is scheduled for publication in Fall 2021. My first book of photography, The Decisive Sequence, is scheduled for publication in Spring 2022. My wildlife reports regularly appear in the Connecticut magazine, Ink, and others.

I believe that introducing children to the natural world is vital for its survival. My children's book, Smeagull the Seagull, A True Story (2018, Seahouse Press, illustrated by my wife, Valerie Elaine Pettis is the story of a wild herring gull who has taken it upon himself to befriend - or rather, train - Valerie and me. I have read and performed Smeagull the Seagull for over 2500 children in person; performances were twice nationally broadcast.

Recently I created Smeagull's Guide to Wildlife (2020), for The Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, as a guide to Long Island Sound wildlife. It is meant to encourage novice wildlife and nature observers, both children and adults, with plain language and richly illustrated with my photographs.

Mark is a proud member of The Explorers Club.