Will Beaton

Will Beaton is a third-generation American descended from Icelandic farmers who settled in North Dakota. Growing up in Grand Forks, he studied Wildlife Biology at the University of North Dakota and founded a grassroots union of independent science communicators, researchers, and cultural developers called Sandbagger News.

Visiting Iceland for the first time in 2017, Will produced a 30-minute documentary called "The Saga of Darlene Andrésdóttir" that describes the utility of the Icelandic Roots database and chronicles the adventures of using it to track down his family’s ancestral sites and Icelandic relatives.

Today, Will studies Science Communication at Colorado State University while preparing for Ph.D. research in Iceland. He plans to partner with Icelandic professors and communicators to develop citizen science initiatives and innovative forms of heritage tourism that would serve public efforts to preserve and study the migration stories of Icelanders and their descendants around the world.

As an IR volunteer, Will is eager to contribute his multimedia production skills, including video editing, podcast hosting, and original music production.