CAPTAIN PLANET SUPER HERO FOR EARTH AWARD 2011

Emmy Award Winner, Television Personality and lifelong champion for the Planet, Jeff Corwin

Since his early childhood, Jeff Corwin has worked for the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems around the globe. Presently, Jeff is Executive Producer and Host of Ocean Mysteries which is being broadcasted nationally on ABC. In addition to exploring the state of our planet’s oceans and marine life, Jeff is a correspondent for science, the environment and nature for MSNBC and NBC news. Beyond television, Jeff has partnered with the Wittaker Center to produce and present a major large format film called Expedition Chesapeake. For the past 16 years, Jeff has hosted a variety of popular television series and specials, including Animal Planet’s Jeff Corwin Experience, Giant Monsters, Realm of the Yeti, Corwin’s Quest, Spring Watch USA, Snake-Tacular, and King of the Jungle; Disney’s Going Wild with Jeff Corwin; Investigation Earth with the Discovery Networks; NBC’s Jeff Corwin Unleashed, which was nominated four times for an Emmy and for which Corwin won an Emmy for Outstanding Host; and the Travel Channel’s Into Alaska and Into the American West. For the Discovery Health Channel Jeff hosted Pets and People, the Power of the Health Connection. His popular television series have been broadcasted in over 130 countries worldwide. He also created and co-presented CNN’s Planet in Peril with Anderson Cooper in 2007. On November 20th 2008, Animal Planet premiered The Vanishing Frog. This powerful documentary highlights Jeff’s year long, global odyssey exploring the mass extinction of our planet’s important amphibian species. In November of 2009, Jeff executive produced and presented 100 Heartbeats. Produced for the NBC networks, this groundbreaking documentary investigated the plight of our planet’s most endangered wildlife species along with the conservation heroes trying to save them.
In October 2009, Jeff partnered once again with Rodale to publish 100 Heartbeats, whose mission, as with the accompanying NBC documentary, is to connect the readers with our planets most endangered species. 100 Heartbeats received great reviews from both critics and the conservation community and is now on its way to paperback for fall 2010. Jeff’s book, Living on the Edge, Amazing Relationships in the Natural World was published 2004 and is now its 5th addition. Through Penguin Books, Jeff is publishing a series of books for younger readers focusing on wildlife, ecology and conservation under the brand of The Jeff Corwin Jr. Explorer Series. The mission of this well-received book series is to build a stong sense of environmental stewardship amongst our nation’s young people. Examples from this 10 book series include – Your Backyard is Wild, Animals and Habitats of the Southwest, the Great Alaska Adventure, The Wild Wild West, A Whale of a Tail, The Great Everglades Adventure, and Snakes.
Jeff’s wildlife and conservation work has been regularly featured on a variety of television series including CNN, FOX, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS Morning Show, Ellen Degeneres, The Bonnie Hunt Show, Rachael Maddows, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brian, Regis and Kelly and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Jeff was cast as himself on CSI Miami, named one of People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful People” and Entertainment Weekly‘s “It List”. Men’s Journal recognized Jeff as the world’s greatest host of a natural history series.
Beyond wildlife and conservation, Jeff is a passionate explorer of human culture especially as it connects to regional cuisine, that is produced in a sustainable manner. His interests in renewable and sustainable living, along with how food is often the glue that cements together a community and culture, recently premiered in a Food Network series called Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin.
A native of Massachusetts, Jeff has established an interactive museum and environmental education center called the EcoZone. Based in Norwell, Massachusetts, the goal of the EcoZone is to build awareness for the wildlife and ecology unique to the wetlands of southeastern Massachusetts. In 2008, Jeff was named Ambassador of Climate Change and Endangered Species on behalf of the Defenders of Wildlife, one of the United States most prominent conservation organizations. He has B.S. degrees in both Biology and Anthropology from Bridgewater State College, a M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and an honorary doctorate in Public Education from Bridgewater State College. When not traveling the world, Jeff can be found at his home off the coast of Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Natasha, and two daughters, Maya Rose and Marina Faye.