Jay Simpson is a creative producer and interdisciplinary collaborator who works where ecological insight, justice, and human imagination meet. His practice spans film, fieldwork, facilitation, and walking—always grounded in curiosity and care for how people relate to place, to each other, and to the wild, layered world we live in.

Jay’s creative practice often begins with a walk—sometimes across continents, sometimes down a coyote trail in the Bronx. In either case, he’s listening: for stories that slip between categories, for signals of resilience, and for what emerges in the spaces between.

From co-authoring an award-winning walking guide through the Westfjords of Iceland, to producing multimedia with Hazara women resisting systemic erasure, to tracing urban coyote paths in New York City through multispecies ethnography, Jay’s work threads stories through complexity rather than cutting through it. He’s known for turning creative chaos into collaborative clarity—often by building systems, guiding dialogue, or simply listening well.

An NYU Gallatin MA graduate and National Geographic Explorer, Jay currently serves as Festival Director for the World Trails Film Festival. His emerging work explores relationships with water—through swims, soundscapes, and submerged histories—and is open to new collaborators and questions.