Whitley Mike

A life-long nature lover and self-confessed Free Willy fan, Whitley Mike ’19, MA, knows the power of being face-to-face with one of the world’s great apex predators. “The first time I saw an orca in the wild was like seeing God,” she says. “They touch the soul in a way I can’t even begin to describe.”

But as “swim with the whales” tours and other immersive eco-tourism offerings take off in popularity, Mike can’t help wondering whether these programs are sustainable. To find out, Mike put her graduate degree in sustainable design into action and recently set out to Norway’s Arctic Circle with Sea Women Expeditions, an international, intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and matriarchal team studying the challenges of a warming Arctic.

As the team’s Creative Director and Co-leader of the Norway Orca Behavioural Project, Mike and her partners are studying how these close encounters affect everyone in the ecosystem, from orcas, to tourists, to Indigenous people. “These programs are a huge money maker in Norway, where it’s like the wild west with little regulation,” says Mike, who wrote her MCAD master’s thesis on orca conservation challenges in the Pacific Northwest. “I’m able to bring my sustainable design degree into play through a design-thinking lens, making sure we’re considering all of the stakeholders.”