World traveler & cultural interpreter

Gary Wintz graduated cum laude from Duns Scotus College in Michigan with a degree in philosophy. He has spent most of the past 40 years outside the US researching, writing, photographing, and lecturing about distant lands and cultures, and has traveled to over 220 countries and territories. 

Gary’s worked on humanitarian projects throughout Asia and was privileged to contribute his expertise to development projects in Ethiopia for UNICEF. In 1981 he taught as a foreign expert at Chengdu University of Science and Technology in Sichuan Province in China. In 1982 he was employed by Tibet University in Lhasa, thus becoming one of the first Westerners to actually reside in Tibet since the communist Chinese occupation. Gary has been fortunate to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama many times. 

Since 1987 Gary has worked as a consultant with development organizations and for media projects throughout Southeast Asia and has lectured on contemporary issues at various institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and the World Affairs Council, the National Geographic Society, the University of Western Australia and both the Soviet, and later, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a longtime member of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, and the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies and the Mongolia Society. 

Gary is a member of the Burma Studies Group and Thailand Laos Cambodia Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies. As a tour leader, some of his current favorite destinations include the Caucasus, the Stans, Bhutan, North Korea, Hunza, Tuva, and the far northeastern China borderlands.