Catherine Nixon Cooke is an award-winning author and speaker with an insatiable curiosity about the world’s remote places and diverse cultures. Catherine has carried their flag on expeditions to Nepal, India, China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, Peru, and Appalachia. These adventures beyond her normal “comfort zone” shaped Cooke into the explorer she is today.
Based in Texas, Cooke divides her time between San Antonio and a small farm surrounded by nature, where she does most of her writing.
Before becoming a biographer and historian, Cooke enjoyed a long career in the non-profit world, serving as CEO for organizations focused on science, rivers, world affairs and mountains. It was her role with the DC-based Mountain Institute that first enabled her to work from field offices in eight mountainous regions worldwide.
Cooke believes every life is filled with drama and discovery worth capturing through biographies, memoirs, and histories. She is currently writing a children’s book about her global adventures. An engaging speaker, Cooke loves sharing exploration stories through lectures, book festivals, and other events nationwide. She invites readers to connect about their own journeys of exploration.
Publications
Dodgers to Damascus: David Lesch’s Journey from Baseball to the Middle East
in production (Trinity University Press, Spring 2025)
Pathfinders: First Women of the Explorers Club
documentary film/co-producer (Explorers Club website, YouTube, 2021)
In Search of Tom Slick: Explorer and Visionary
(Texas A&M University Press, 2020), now optioned for film/television by Bluestone Pictures
San Antonio: City on a Mission
co-authored with Hon. Henry Cisneros (CityInk/Renaissance Books, 2021)
Love Deeper Than a River
with Hon. Lila Cockrell (Trinity University Press, 2019)
Juan O’Gorman: Confluence of Civilizations
(Trinity University Press, 2016)
The Thistle and the Rose: Romance, Railroads, and Big Oil in Revolutionary Mexico
(IUniverse, 2011)
Keynotes
2023
for Texas Biomedical Research Foundation
International Women’s Day
International Women’s Forum
San Antonio Youth Literacy
Firstmark Credit Union
2021
EC First Women Celebration 2021
2015
Explorers Club Annual Dinner Co-Chair and Master of Ceremonies
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