More people have walked on the moon than have been to some of the remote places Jill Heinerth has explored on earth. Jill is a veteran of over thirty years of scientific diving, filming/photography and exploration on projects with National Geographic, NOAA, various educational institutions and television networks worldwide. Recognized as one of the planet’s great underwater explorers, her expeditions include the first dives inside Antartica icebergs and record-breaking scientific missions in deep underwater caves around the world. In recognition of her lifetime achievement, Jill was appointed as the inaugural Explorer in Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
Jill conducts workshops, facilitates film festivals, and gives presentations at industry trade shows, universities and corporate events around the world. She is a frequentonline guest educator, leveraging technology to inspire classrooms full of eager young people from Anchorage, Alaska, to Mumbai, India. Jill has been a presenter on dozens of radio and TV broadcasts, including the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, CBC, and television networks from Japan to Australia. Over 1.5 million people have learned about climate change, water, adventure, and exploration by viewing Jill’s passionate TED Talk.
More than anything else, Jill considers herself an exploration educator. Sharing her unique experience and knowledge, she speaks about leadership, risk assessment, fear, and failure by using her expedition experiences as a correlation to the missions that her audience members are tasked with every day. She inspires innovators, invigoratescollaborators and makes a special connection with women leaders.
With her “We Are Water” project, Jill leads an educational effort for water literacy by helping people make everyday lifestyle changes that will lead to greater access to and preservation of our endangered freshwater resources. In support of this effort, Jill and her husband Robert McClellan rode their bicycles 7000 km across Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland in 2013, meeting people and through presentations to groups large and small, spreading the message of environmental stewardship. Jill’s accolades include induction as a Fellow into the Explorer’s Club and the inaugural class of the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame. She received the Wyland ICON Award, an honor she shares with several of her underwater heroes including Jacques Cousteau, Robert Ballard, and Dr. Sylvia Earle. She is the 2017 recipient of the diving world’s highest award for sports and education from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Science - the NOGI. She was named a “Living Legend” by Sport Diver Magazine, Diver of the Year from the Boston Sea Rovers, Beneath the Sea and Chicago Our World Underwater Shows, selected as Scuba Diving Magazine’s “Sea Hero of the Year,” and recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from TekDiveUSA. For her work at the extreme ends of the earth, Canada’s Governor General presented Jill with the rare and prestigious Polar Medal.
A prolific blogger and creator of social media, Jill’s website, www.IntoThePlanet.com is a treasure trove of knowledge and resources about her diving and exploration efforts.Partnering with Penguin Random House in Canada and Harper Collins in the US, Jill will soon be releasing four new major-market, non-fiction and children’s books.
