Dear Friends,
Since 2003, our pioneering Women of Discovery Fellows program has been a shining light for women explorers and scientists looking to stay in the field and continue groundbreaking work that makes the world a better place for us all. We are excited to induct five more extraordinary Fellows on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, in New York City at our first in-person gala since 2019! Please join the celebration and hear about their brilliant discoveries and unique stories of success in traditionally male-dominated fields. Buy tickets here for an evening that will be sure to expand your horizons!
In 2005, WINGS added our storied Flag Carrier program to support emerging explorers. After 17 years and almost 100 Flag Carrier expeditions, the WINGS flag remains a beacon for emerging explorers but also a part of the extraordinary journeys of returning Fellows and established explorers with bold new ideas and initiatives. When other sources of funding don't cover essentials such as research assistant salaries, travel and legal fees, and childcare, Flag Carrier grants can provide the missing piece to either launch a project or help bring concept to reality. Read below about recent Flag Carriers who, from Ghana and Greenland to Ecuador, Egypt and indonesia, are all women who dare to be trailblazers.
Another group that honors WINGS with inspired ideas is our Junior Board. The Board has some fabulous new members to help advance WINGS's mission, connect young professionals, and raise funds as a collective to sponsor Fellows and Flag Carriers. Find more details here.
Yours in discovery,
Carrie Maloney, Executive Director
Emilie Welles, Flag Program Coordinator
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WINGS WorldQuest Flag Expeditions 2021-2022
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Silvia Schrötter, Upper East Ghana
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Silvia Schrötter (#3)
Expedition: Resilience of Small-Scale Farmers Toward Climate Change
Location: Upper East Ghana
Expedition Complete: Jun. - Sept. 2021
Tropical Ecologist Silvia Schrötter focuses on how to effectively incorporate the human dimension, including livelihood development, into nature conservation and climate change adaptation. The goal of this expedition was to identify land use strategies, crop diversity, and decision-making processes that put people and ecosystems at risk.The data collected provides an overview of land-climate interactions in the region, the current resilience of farmers using different irrigation schemes, and possible strategies to increase the climate resilience of people and nature.
"In the Upper East Region of Ghana, farmers suffer from the consequences of climate change, which threatens their livelihoods. Since food production is already limited to the rainy season and most people are sustained by agriculture, any climatic shocks such as heavy rainfalls and heatwaves, can be a risk to their survival." - Silvia, Wessling, Germany
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 | Kiera Rumbough with Flag #29, Port Townsend, WA
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| Kiera Rumbough (#29)
Expedition: Apparent Winds
In the Field - Current Location: Alaska, USA
Marine biologist Keira Rumbough is the lead research coordinator on a 10-year sea expedition around the world to film and document stories about individuals, organizations and communities working to restore and preserve the natural environment and cultural identity. Kiera and the crew of Resilience also will be collecting scientific data and building education programs, both aboard the ship and in the classroom. Traveling by sea, Kiera will be collecting cultural and enviornmental stories from coastline communities to show how water connects us all.
"People care about what they know. Education is by far the most important conservation tool, and therefore we strive to create impactful, real-world educational opportunities." - Kiera, Connecticut, USA
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Elyce Gosselin (#17)
Expedition: Ecology and Conservation Genetics of Galapagos Bats
In the Field - Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Elyce Gosselin is researching the ecology and conservation genomics of red and hoary bats species found in the Galapagos Islands. Genetic and genomic data generated as a part of Elyce’s project will provide novel information about the phylogenomics, landscape genomics and population genomics of two unique bat species – information that is vital for effective bat conservation and management. Also critical to ensuring long-term bat conservation is Elyce and her team’s work with the community to train local scientists to monitor the bat populations, and with Galapagos National Park Director Danny Rueda Córdova to create a long-term, data-informed monitoring and management plan.
"Our project is unique in that we are prioritizing the empowerment of locals to conduct research in their own communities, and we have been actively looking for ways to involve and educate the public from the beginning." Elyce, Idaho, USA
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Chiara De Gregorio (#2)
Expedition: Music in the Jungle - Investigating Musical Abilitties in Primates
Location: Peruvian Amazon Rainforest
Start Date: October 2022
Chiara De Gregorio focuses on primate communication, primarily among singing primates, with the goal of understanding the social and environmental factors that shape singing behavior, and how these vocalizations relate to the evolution of human language and music. This next expedition takes her to the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, where she will manage a project to understand the remote population of titi monkeys, one of the four primate genera that communicate using songs that, as our own music, are composed of notes that are organized in phrases. Using microphones and recorders to collect their duets and choruses, Chiara and her team will analyze these songs to search for musical universals, as rhythmic categories, metrical hierarchy, descending contours and others.
"This research may indicate that human music is not truly novel; its intrinsic musical properties are more deeply rooted in the Primate lineage than previously thought, adding a new piece of evidence to the biological roots of our love for music." - Chiara, Torino, Italy
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Cassandra Quave (#25)
Expedition: Medicinal Plants of Egyptian Oasis
Location: El-Wahat el-Bahariya Oasis, Egypt
Start Date: December 2022
Medical ethnobotanist Cassandra Quave leads anti-infective drug discovery research initiatives and teaches courses on medicinal plants, natural products, microbiology and pharmacology at Emory University.
One of the oldest existing records of the medicinal applications of plants is the Egyptian “Ebers Papyrus,” which dates back to circa 1550 BC. Despite the historic importance of Egyptian flora in the foundation of medicine, many of the species documented in this record remain unstudied by the lens of modern science. Cassandra and her team will collect and authenticate herbarium specimens of each species under study and create extracts for chemical characterization and pharmacological evaluation in a panel of antibacterial and toxicity laboratory models.
"Innovative approaches to identifying novel chemical compounds that could serve as the next generation of antibiotics are in high demand. Plants have played a fundamental role as the basis of the pharmacopoeia of many different cultures since ancient times." - Cassandra, Georgia, USA
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Julieta Massaferro
Expedition: Aquatic Bioindicators from the World's End - Reconstructing the Story of Lakes in Southern South America
Location: Southern Argentina
Start Date: February 2023
Paleoecologist / paleolimnologist Julieta Massaferro researches fossil insects from lake sediments to reconstruct past environmental conditions and understand climate and other environmental changes during the Quaternary – a period that covers the last 2.6 million years. Lakes contain excellent environmental and climate change records in their shorelines, deep-basin sediments and fossil remains.
Julieta’s next expedition takes her to the southernmost tip of South America, a remote area with a complex climate around El Chaltén and Los Glaciares National Park. The lakes there are completely pristine and, despite recent increases in tourism, human traces are almost imperceptible, so the changes observed along the sediment cores can be attributed to climate.
"In a multidisciplinary fashion, we look at different biotic and non-biological proxies or indicators along time to reconstruct the past climate environmental variability during a time window of interest." - Julieta, Rio Negro, Argentina
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 | Gina Moseley on expedition in Northern Greenland (Photo courtesy: Robbie Shone)
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Gina Moseley
Expedition: Northern Caves 2023
Location: Northern Greenland (Hall Land, Nyboe Land, Warming Land, Wulff Land)
Start Date: July 2023
Palaeoclimatologist and polar explorer Gina Moseley specializes in improving our understanding of how the Arctic responds to a warmer world. The Greenland Caves Project seeks to improve knowledge of Greenland’s response to warmer climates through geochemical investigation of mineral deposits found in caves. Such information is critically important for improving predictive climate models during this time of anthropogenic climate change. Furthermore, the records are likely to cover time periods beyond the limit of the Greenland ice cores, thus providing completely new knowledge about past Arctic climate.
"Introduction Caves offer one of the last remaining realms on Earth for original exploration. It is not possible for satellites to see inside the Earth, or for robots to map underground labyrinths. Learning about the world beneath our feet therefore requires humans to physically enter the underworld." - Gina, Innsbruck, Austria
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SAVE THE DATE
October 19, 2022
Tribeca 360°
New York City
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Read Their Flag Reports!Upon completion of an expedtion, WINGS Flag Carriers write a Flag Report, which details goals, challenges and results from time in the field. Flag Reporta are then posted on the WINGS WorldQuest website for you to read and enjoy!
Here are brief summaries of the latest Flag Reports:
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Felicity AstonFlag #27
Expedition: The B.I.G. Expedition - Before It's Gone North Pole Expedition
Location: Svalbard, Norway Dates: April 2022
A data collection and training expedition in preparation for her 2023 ski journey to the North Pole. She and her team went to Svalbard to gain valuable experience in both polar ski travel and scientific sampling.
Click HERE to view Felicity's Flag Report
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Rahayu OktavianiFlag #23
Expedition: Finding the Perfect Place - Monitoring Sleeping Trees Selected by Javan Gibbon
Location: Citalahab Forest, Gunung Halimum Salak National Park, West Java, Indonesia Dates: Sept. - Dec. 2021
A longterm field project on the behavior and ecology of the Javan gibbon, a small ape native to Indonesia. She and her team treked into the Citalahab Forest to identify the characteristics and preferences of sleeping trees the Javan gibbon select.
Click HERE to view Rahayu''s Flag Report
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Callie VeelenturfFlag #29
Expedition: Discovering the Pearl Island's Endangered Treasure
Location: Pearl Islands Archipelago, Panama Dates: Oct. 2019 - Mar. 2020
A five month field expedition to study local sea turtle populations. Callie took to the beaches to study new sea turtle nesting sites, local human uses of turtles, and fisheries bycatch.
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Spotlight On: Fellows that also are Flag CarriersSeveral of our Fellows have returned to carry a WINGS Flag on expeditions signifying new initiatives. We love the opportunity to be a part of their next steps, groundbreaking research and extraordinary adventures. When we asked Fellows Ann Bancroft and Felicity Aston, who have carried flags on several expeditions, what the flag means to them, they had this to say:
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Ann Bancroft
3X Flag Carrier
"When you ask about being a Flag Carrier with WINGS, my mind immediately goes to the Ganges River. Although Liv [Arnesen, 2008 Courage Award] and I have carried the flag on other expeditions, the power of the flag hit me as I asked our international group of women to hold it high for the photo at the end of our 2-month excursion. We had just completed the length of the Ganges from source to sea, and we held it in the boat as our backs were to the Bay of Bengal. Perhaps it hit me stronger on this trip because I traveled with strong remarkable women from around the globe. The very network this flag and its organization (WINGS) represents - It's a powerful network and one that gives me immense hope knowing remarkable women around the world are adding their energy, talent and curiosity to understanding this amazing planet. I am so very proud to be apart of this community as a Fellow and Flag Carrier." - Ann Bancroft
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Felicity Aston
4X Flag Carrier
"What sets explorers apart from travellers is curiosity and a sense of purpose. An expedition as opposed to a journey means setting out to answer questions... Carrying the [WINGS] flag on the expedition to Svalbard signalled its significance as a worthy expedition in its own right."
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Your gift will empower high-achieving women scientists and explorers with the vital support and access needed to do their extraordinary work. By supporting these Women of Discovery, you are investing in the future of our planet and, therefore, the future of us all.
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