Hi there! Welcome to Jem Adventures. Follow Emily and James as they travel the world seeking breathtaking sights, delicious foods, and memorable adventures!

Emily Goodheart Kautz

Emily is a cultural anthropologist and writer for the travel partner of the World Wildlife Fund, which uses ecotourism as a powerful tool for change by conserving endangered species while supporting local communities. During her childhood spent in Seattle, Washington, she developed a deep love for the environment while camping in the temperate rainforests, horseback riding through wildflower meadows in the Cascades, playing soccer in rainstorms, and building fairy houses in her backyard. After winning first place in a persuasive essay on green sea turtles in the fifth grade and coming face to face with one in Hawaii later that year, she caught the travel bug and has since explored 19 countries.

At 16, she traveled to the Galapagos for a wildlife conservation and photography student expedition with National Geographic. Eager to continue studying animals and world cultures, she spent a gap semester focused on wildlife photography and lion conservation in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She then traveled to Southeast Asia with her best friend, exploring the wonders of Angkor Wat and thousands of golden stupas in Myanmar while staying with the Hill Tribes and in floating villages.

She majored in anthropology at Colorado College and spent a month with the Colville Confederated Tribes in Eastern Washington for her thesis in traditional foodways and indigenous environmental education. While at school, she took college courses in Italy and India where she wrote about culture, mythology, and cuisine. She also studied primate behavior at the Lemur Conservation Foundation and completed a wildlife rehabilitation internship in Costa Rica. After graduation and a summer working as a conservation educator at the Denver Zoo, she found the perfect travel company and never looked back. Combining her passions for writing, culture, animals, and travel has been a dream come true. When not writing or exploring the world, you can find her immersed in a fantasy book, volunteering at an equine therapy program, or at the farmers market.

James Spedick

James is a Villanova University graduate with a background in Computer Engineering, who currently develops software for the ski resort industry. But don’t let his profession fool you—at his core, he is a nature enthusiast whose curiosity for the world has only grown since meeting Emily. Monthly boy scout outings into the Appalachian Mountains as a child allowed him to foster an early relationship with nature. Wilderness survival skills fascinated him, while junior athletics provided a medium to expend boundless amounts of energy. Soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming, lacrosse, and skiing are just a handful of the competitive athletics he partook in, but as formal sports programs faded, open schedules provided opportunities to travel, and hiking became a common theme among destinations.

The last several years have given way to an increasing trend of nature excursions, including stops at 16 distinct National Parks and 10 of Colorado’s 14,000+ foot summits. With stunning sights came the tantalizing desire to capture them, leading to the inevitable inception of @thetraleblazer, an Instagram page featuring photography from James’ latest adventures. As the mounting list of places he wanted to go and trails he wanted to hike began to feel overwhelming, James treated the problem like a math equation and decided the solution was to increase his pace, quite literally. A bundle of clunky race medals and bibs stained with sweat can be seen hanging as mementos atop his office desk. Trail running has become an integral part of his life, but most notably has proven as a lens to view the world through, offering a myriad of scenery so vast, it’s limited only by the determination of the individual pursuing it.

Trips to London, Madrid, and San Juan to visit his older sister were often lost on the video game indulging teenager, but not too far down the road, a cultivated woman (Emily!) would enter his life, reinvigorating his instinctual curiosity to probe the world around him.

So far on their journey together, James and Emily have explored the tropical beaches of Maui, the streets of Paris, the sea-lion laden coasts of California, and the mountain towns of Colorado. They eagerly await the many adventures in store!