Dr. McClellan received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in counseling psychology and her master's degree from UCLA. She completed post doctoral training in family therapy and established a successful private practice as a psychologist for over 35 years in the Phoenix Arizona area. She served in leadership positions and a number of community boards and committees.While Dr. McClellan enjoyed her private practice, she was always looking for new ideas and inspiration. Her office looked out onto a lake that was inhabited with various migrating ducks. Between sessions she would gaze out of the window and long for more time in nature. That is when she began taking classes with Arizona Highways and attended a workshop on photographing hummingbirds. After that powerful introduction, she was hooked and began studying with distinguished wildlife photographers around the world.One workshop was to South Georgia in the Southern Ocean to photograph enormous king penguin colonies such as St. Andrews Bay and Salisbury Plain. Dr. McClellan continued onto the Antarctica to discover even more types of penguins in beautiful settings. This experience was a photographer's dream and led to the vision for Advice of the Penguins.