A deep-sea explorer who is passionate about developing new ways to better understand the ocean and make it more accessible to everyone around the world, Dr. Croff Bell is a National Geographic Explorer and the founder and president of the Ocean Discovery League. She is on a mission to break down the barriers to the deep sea by combining low-cost technologies, AI-driven data analysis, and capacity building to make access to the deep sea more efficient and accessible to all, especially those historically excluded in the field. Her background in ocean engineering, maritime archaeology, and geological oceanography, and leadership of dozens of expeditions around the world uniquely position her to create efficient, equitable systems to broaden access to the deep sea. Dr. Croff Bell was the founding director of the Open Ocean Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, which was dedicated to developing programs for low- cost, distributed deployment of new and emerging technologies for ocean exploration and community building. As executive vice president of The Ocean Exploration Trust, she led the development of exploration, research, and educational outreach activities for E/V Nautilus, including management of scientists, engineers, educators, and students from more than thirty countries working together to conduct telepresence-enabled expeditions around the world.