Katie McGee is a lifelong animal lover and self proclaimed bird nerd.  She has a decade of experience planning elaborate international wildlife viewing trips that often include volunteering stints with local rehabilitation or conservation organizations.  Some of her favorite places in the world are Madagascar and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.  (You can read about some of these adventures in her books The Sharks of Mexico, Reniala, and Maetang To Koh Chang, available on Amazon.)  

She works at Newport Aquarium as a Dive Technician and has the privilege of SCUBA diving with some amazing animals, such as Arapaima, Sharkrays, and Denver the Loggerhead Sea Turtle.  Through her work as an aquarium diver she became a CPR and first aid instructor through RescueX (ILCOR compliant), a company dedicated to diver safety.  Before the start of her diving career, she worked with her favorite animals, dogs, for twelve years at Kyle Veterinary Hospital in southwest Ohio.  She volunteers extensively with wildlife, from monitoring the young of Monarch butterflies and Eastern Bluebird to bottle feeding orphaned raccoons.  She is currently studying zoology at Oregon State University and training to become a bird bander.

Katie began birding seriously after her first trip to Madagascar in 2019, where she was so impressed by the knowledge of her guides that she wanted to pursue becoming a birding guide herself.  She enrolled in the master naturalist course for her home state, Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist, and started guiding bird walks at her local nature center in 2021.  In 2025, Katie attended a professional development course for women birding guides at Panama’s renowned Canopy Lodge led by Big Year record breaking birder Tiffany Kersten.  Shortly after, Katie started her company, Chance Expeditions, with the goal of building well researched wildlife viewing blitz itineraries geared towards small groups of birders interested in seeing all the wildlife a destination has to offer. 

WHAT IS CHANCE EXPEDITIONS ALL ABOUT?

Chance Expeditions was named for my first dog, a German Shorthaired Pointer.  Chance was my childhood best friend who sparked my life long love for animals and obsession with dogs.  When searching my brain for a name for my travel company, it seemed fitting to give Chance the credit for how she shaped my life.

Through Chance Expeditions, I hope to share my unique itineraries with others.  My trips promote responsible wildlife viewing geared toward conservation, and are oriented towards birders of varying skill and interest levels.  

I am an avid reader and note taker and, over the years, have amassed a several-hundred-pages long document of travel locations, ideas and tidbits.  These tips and tricks have been the beginning of many custom made solo trips that I now hope to share with you.  My itineraries are built by me for Chance Expeditions from my own experiences, research, and the knowledge of local guides. 

Responsible wildlife viewing is at the forefront of my mission.  Through visiting Great White Sharks in Guadalupe Island, Mexico, and Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda, I learned the importance of ecotourism as a tool for conservation.  By visiting wildlife you protect it, by giving your time and travel dollars to the parks, guides, and local restaurants and hotels.

My motto, Birding-centric Wildlife EcoTours, shapes the focus of my trips.  I love birding because any time you go out in nature you're bound to see birds!  Any venture outdoors can be an adventure when birds are involved.  Chance Expeditions trips will include safaris and treks to spot each destinations' most iconic fauna led by local guides with diverse knowledge.  And of course we will target endemic birds and have plenty of opportunities to increase your life list.

I hope you will join me on an expedition, following Chance's legacy from a rescue dog to a wildlife warrior, and experience the world's birds and wildlife through my bespoke itineraries.

-Katie McGee

Chance Expeditions Founder