Dalvin Aboagye is a writer based in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. When he’s not enjoying the warmth and sunlight of summer, you can find him scrambling to survive yet another cold winter in the Catskills. He’s written for the Times Union, the River, Thrillist, and more.

Jo-Anne Asuncion is a photo & creative services associate at Scenic Hudson. She enjoys photography, birdwatching, hiking, conducting community science, and otherwise exploring the Hudson Valley from her home base in Wappingers Falls.

ML (Mary Louise) Ball is a writer as well as a rider, competing around the region in eventing, or horse trials. Originally from North Carolina but now based in LaGrange by way of NYC, she is constantly amazed by the endless joys and adventures to be found in the Hudson Valley. She also writes for Millbrook Magazine.

Tyler Blodgett is a writer, director, and visual storyteller. He was born and raised in the Hudson Valley and has published his work both locally and abroad. His mission largely focuses on the relationship between man and nature.

Izdihar Dabashi is an Arab-American writer based in New York. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and cognitive neuroscience from Marist College and her master’s from Columbia University.

Environmental journalist Emma Denes is a science writing master’s student at Johns Hopkins University and journalism graduate of Marist University. She has written previously for Hudson Valley Magazine and the Revelator. Despite her lifelong love of the ocean, she’s still partial to the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley.

Arvind Dilawar is an independent journalist based in the Hudson Valley. His articles, interviews, and essays on turning pollution into paint, protests against pipelines, and more have appeared in Newsweek, The Guardian, Vice, and elsewhere. This year he plans to have heat pumps installed at home to reduce his carbon footprint.

​​Chevaughn Dixon is a professional sea kayaker with 12 years of experience guiding and teaching. He is director of the Hudson River Riders, a program providing youth and people of color with outdoor access in Yonkers, and he has introduced more than 5,000 people to paddle sport in the NYC area.

Jacqueline Dooley is a freelance writer located in Eddyville, N.Y. Her essays about grief, nature, birds, and parenting have appeared in the Washington Post, Longreads, Modern Loss, Al Jazeera, and more.

Melissa Esposito is a lifelong Hudson Valley resident with 15 years of lifestyle-journalism experience covering the region. When she puts away her writing tools, she values time with loved ones, live music, all things farm-to-table, and a relaxing stroll on a good trail.

New York native Elyse Fernandez now lives on the other side of the river. A first-time homeowner, she is working to build a pollinator-friendly lawn and loves to visit local farms and gardens for inspiration. On the weekends, she enjoys visiting nearby lakes and beginner hiking trails with her husband and very lazy rescue, Frankie.

John Ferro serves as editorial director at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck. Prior to joining Omega, he spent 26 years as an award-winning reporter and senior editor at the Poughkeepsie Journal, most recently covering the environment.

Santiago Florez is a Colombian journalist, educator, illustrator, and anthropologist based in NYC. He worked in education at the American Museum of Natural History and earned a master’s in bilingual journalism at the Craig Newmark Journalism School. His work has been featured in Audubon, El País, Herchinger Reporter, and beyond.

Nicole Formisano is a freelance writer with work featured in TigerBeat, the Long Island Press, and more. She fell in love with the Hudson Valley while completing her degree in English and communications at Marist College, and she’s since become focused on using journalism as a tool for community and environmental work.

Lynn Freehill-Maye is managing editor of Scenic Hudson’s Hudson Valley Viewfinder. She is also a Hudson Valley-based sustainability writer who loves to run, swim, and cycle outdoors. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Scientific American, Sierra, Civil Eats, CityLab, and beyond.

Rich Guthrie is a graduate of SUNY-Syracuse’s School of Environmental Science and Forestry. He is retired from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and now contributes his ornithology knowledge to WAMC, as well as eBird. He lives on the west bank of the Hudson in New Baltimore.

Pierce Johnston is a freelance photographer born, raised, and based in the Hudson Valley. He works with organizations like Scenic Hudson, New York State Parks, and more to capture this area’s unique beauty.

Matt Jones is a Brazilian-American freelance writer and musician based in Kingston. He’s a certified UX writer with 15+ years of experience in the nonprofit sector, including working for the Bard Prison Initiative, the Olana Partnership, and the Cooper Union.

Writer Mazuba Kapambwe holds a master’s degree in Africana Studies from SUNY-Albany. She fell in love with the Hudson Valley on countless bus rides between the Capital District and her family’s home in Scarsdale, N.Y. Her work has appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, Culture Trip, CNN Travel, and more.

Robert Lawrence lives in Montgomery, N.Y., where he works as a science writer and enjoys visiting the many parks of the Hudson Valley with his wife and little boy. He is originally from drier climates and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Arizona State University.

David Levine is an Albany-based freelance writer who has written extensively about this region’s singular history. This story was adapted from The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years (Globe Pequeot, 2020), available at your favorite local independent bookstore.

Cheyenne MacDonald is a science and technology journalist based in the Hudson Valley. She leads tech coverage at Screen Rant and runs a science newsletter, the perpetual stew, in her spare time. When she’s not writing, you can find her in the woods.

Kat Merry holds a master’s degree in science and spends weekends exploring new hiking trails in the Hudson Valley with her husband and dog. Based in Beacon, she writes for local news publications such as the River, the Highlands Current, and MainStreetBeacon.com.

Erin Nylen (Saronson) is a communications operations manager at Scenic Hudson. She currently serves on the Conservation Advisory Committee and Climate Smart Task Force in the valley hamlet of Hurley, N.Y. You can find her with her phone out, trying to identify a bird’s song or a native plant.

Monique Polanco is a social worker, cookbook author, and food photographer who resides in the Hudson Valley. She is a former food columnist for Rivertown Magazine and also writes a food blog, Peaches 2 Peaches. She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Hunter College and master’s from Fordham University. Her work has been featured in Feedfeed, Bake From Scratch, and Kitchn.

Culinary historian Peter G. Rose was born in the Netherlands and came to the U.S. in the mid-1960s. She has worked as a food writer and syndicated columnist for 20 years, contributing to magazines such as Gourmet and Saveur, and is the author of 10 books.

Diana Richards is a Hudson Valley-based landscape photographer, educator, and dog mama. She has volunteered with Gear Forward to help provide equitable outdoor access for underserved youth, as well as assisted the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference with trail-building. She is also education lead for the Fungi Foundation.

Reed Sparling is a Scenic Hudson historian and former staff writer for the organization. He is also a former editor of Hudson Valley Magazine, as well as a writer for Reader’s Digest. He continues to co-edit the Hudson River Valley Review, a scholarly journal published by the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College.

​​Saugerties native Joni Sweet writes about health and travel from her Beacon home. She’s the author of the National Geographic guidebook 48 Hours: New York, and her work has been published by Lonely Planet, Forbes, SELF, Health, and Real Simple. She loves hitting the Dutchess Rail Trail on her 4130 road bike from State Bicycle Co.

Jonathan Suh is a biologist and wildlife photographer who specializes in reptiles and amphibians. His travels have brought him across the U.S. and the neotropics, but he was born and raised in the Hudson Valley.

Elizabeth Werlau is a freelance writer, school librarian and municipal historian for the town of Plattekill, N.Y. She has written extensively on the history of the Hudson Valley, and has a special love for the stories of the Marlboro Mountains and the Hudson River.