Dr. Mireya Mayor — hailed by The New York Times as “The Female Indiana Jones” — is a world-renowned primatologist, explorer and Emmy Award-nominated TV host. What she is not is typical.
 

As National Geographic’s first female wildlife correspondent, Mireya launched her TV career, reporting from remote locales where she was conducting field research. Since then, she has hosted dozens of documentaries, including her own series "Wild Nights with Mireya Mayor" (Nat GeoWILD), "Mark Burnett’s Expedition Africa" (History Channel), and the current hit series, "Expedition Bigfoot" (Travel Channel). Mireya grew up in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, overprotected by her Cuban immigrant parents, so, when she won a Fulbright Scholarship that would send her packing a machete and hiking into the jungles of South America, it would be her first camping trip.
 

Not one for rules or limitations, Mireya carved her own path. Why should she not be a budding scientist during the week and a Miami Dolphins cheerleader on Sundays? She continues to do so. This loving mother of six is in near-constant motion, pushing strollers, being a dance mom, kissing scraped knees, while reading scripts, coaching professors at Florida International University (FIU) in the art of science communication, and searching for that elusive figure in the backwoods that looks a little like Chewbacca. She co-discovered and described the world’s smallest primate, a tiny mouse lemur, in the fragmented jungles of Madagascar. Dr. Mayor is also the Director of Exploration and Science Communications at FIU.