Bios
Reefs to Rockies: Wildlife Tour Experts
Sheridan Samano: Co-Founder and Principal Consultant
Sheridan has fond memories of flipping through National Geographic magazines as a child and dreaming of traveling to far away places to observe the animals staring out from those pages. 
After attaining degrees in Wildlife and Fisheries Science and Biology and working on multiple research projects studying plant/animal interactions in the field, Sheridan took a teaching position at the Community College of Aurora in 2001 and at the Denver Botanic Gardens in 2002. Sheridan loves sharing her enthusiasm for wildlife conservation and environmental stewardship with students in the classroom and while guiding trips locally and abroad.
Sheridan has always wanted to lend a hand in wildlife conservation. However, it wasn’t until her first trip to Costa Rica in 2004 that she was inspired to use tourism as a conservation tool. Peregrine Tours was formed two years later and renamed Reefs to Rockies, LLC in 2009. Sheridan believes that tourism, when done sustainably, can aid in conservation while benefiting local communities. This is now Reefs to Rockies’ primary mission. With Reefs to Rockies, Sheridan is able to combine her passions for wildlife conservation and education every day; and, her childhood dream of traveling to faraway places to see awe-inspiring wildlife is a reality.
“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you’ve traveled.” – Mohammed
Lynda Gregory: Co-Founder
Lynda was fortunate to grow up in a family where she had two influential parents, both working in the field of science and surrounding her with the idea of exploration and discovery from a young age. She grew up with a variety of pets – dogs, cats, a guinea pig, rabbits, geese, a snake, and she even hatched some baby ducklings in an incubator she built for a science project – all of which fulfilled a need to learn about the natural world.
In high school, Lynda volunteered in healthcare because she wanted to help people improve their quality of life. This led her to Kansas State University to pursue a degree in Kinesiology and later to post-graduate work in Exercise Physiology. While getting her education, Lynda explored work in Cardiac Rehabilitation and found that her great leadership qualities put her in a position to substitute teach and to coach numerous sports in high school athletics programs. Lynda now has a successful career in the financial services industry and has chosen to continue helping people through her work with Reefs to Rockies.
Lynda loves to be outdoors doing whatever she can, whether it is camping in Colorado’s wilderness, hiking through the cloud forests of northern Peru, or scuba diving along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. She feels that co-founding Reefs to Rockies to promote sustainable tourism and getting involved with wildlife and conservation groups creates a way to give back to local communities and the natural environment after all it has provided for her.
