Sunniva Sorby is an explorer, TEDx speaker, writer, and community builder who has a knack for bringing big, wild experiences back down to earth.

Over the past three decades, Sunniva has worked in some of the planet’s most extreme places—overwintering in the High Arctic, skiing across Antarctica, guiding expeditions, and collaborating with scientists, educators, and storytellers.

Somewhere along the way, she also became a writer—because it turns out that when you spend enough time in silence, ice, and weather, stories start insisting on being told. She is the co-author of Hearts in the Ice and her writing has appeared in publications including The Arctic Journal, The Globe and Mail, and Psychology Today.

Her work often explores themes of isolation, resilience, transformation, and what wild places can teach us about being human. As a TEDx speaker, Sunniva is known for storytelling that is both expansive and deeply personal—connecting polar expeditions, citizen science, and inner exploration in ways that resonate far beyond the stage.

Now based in the Comox Valley, Sunniva brings these lessons home—into community spaces, classrooms, and conversations. She is the founder of the Embrace the Planet Project and host of Pioneers of the Possible, initiatives that blend storytelling, science, and intergenerational learning to make complex global challenges feel hopeful and actionable.

At heart, Sunniva’s work is about connection: to nature, to each other, and to the quieter inner compass that often gets lost in busy lives. From polar ice to coastal forests, she invites people—especially women and young people—to slow down, ask better questions, and step into what’s possible, together.