WINGS Women in the News
The WINGS Women of Discovery and Flag Carriers are constantly making history and headlines! On land, in the sea, and in the air, our explorers are making an impact.
2011 Fellow Anna Cummins
a pioneer of ocean plastic pollution research and co-founder of The 5 Gyres Institute, just released findings from their most recent project, Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz, a science-based study showing solid data that plastic items make up the majority (up to 81%) of trash escaping the waste stream and harming the health of people, wildlife and waterways. The report highlights which plastic trash items are most found as well as which companies are responsible for producing those plastic items. These findings will be used to support legislation to reduce single-use plastic in protected spaces. The report authors backed the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act, which would require the National Park System to create a service dedicated to lessening and, if necessary, banning single-use plastic products. The TrashBlitz was a project of 5 Gyres and corporate and nonprofit partners including Oceana, Klean Kanteen and Break Free From Plastic.
2019 Fellow Dr. Mandë Holford
has a beautiful and deadly sea snail species named after her: Terebra holfordae sp. nov. Found in Vanuatu, the new cryptic species was named for Mandë, states this article, for being “one of the major driving forces behind the developments in terebrid phylogeny and taxonomy.” A biochemist and associate professor at CUNY Hunter College with appointments at the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medicine, Mandë has focused her research on chemical and biological diversity, specifically investigating venom and venomous organisms such as killer sea snails as agents of change and innovation in evolution and for therapeutic development in pain and cancer. With her Holford Lab team and a "mollusks-to-medicine" strategy, Mandë is creating new pathways for treating old problems.
2011 Fellow Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka
Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health and Gorilla Conservation Coffee, has been honored with the 2022 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize, awarded to well established leaders whose leadership is courageous, innovative, rooted in universal values and global in application or in aspiration. In a press release, Dr. Gladys was announced for her persistent, innovative leadership in developing new approaches to human/wildlife interaction at a time when the danger of zoonotic diseases is rising worldwide. Fun Facts: 2018 Fellow Dr. Asha de Vos is a 2021Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize winner! 2020 Lifetime Achievement Fellow Dr. Sylvia Earle won in 2020!
2018 Fellow Dr. Nalini Nadkarni
one of the world’s leading ecologists and a popular science communicator, hosts two weekly public radio programs. Undisciplined takes a fun and accessible dive into the lives of researchers and explorers working across a wide variety of scientific fields. Recent topics include “what makes berries blue,” “is human intervention necessary to regenerate forests after a wildfire?” and “scientists can now eavesdrop on whales.” Her other program, TreeNote, supported by the National Science Foundation, is a two-minute weekly radio feature on the wonder of trees in topics ranging from “Trees and Baseball,” “The Body Language of Trees,” and “The How and Why of Autumn Leaf Colors.” Nalini, called the Queen of the Forest Canopy for her pioneering forest canopy work, also co-founded the Sustainability in Prison Project and runs the Initiative to Bring Science to the Incarcerated in Utah (INSPIRE), is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
2016 Fellow Dr. Sheila Ochugboju
executive director of Alliance for Science, presented at several UN COP27 panels, including “Science for Resilience: Highlighting Innovations which Promote Resilience in The Global South”, with key takeaways that climate-smart solutions, biotechnology and social innovations can contribute to solving the most pressing agricultural challenges in the Global South. She also hosted the side event, "Climate Action Frontiers: Leading the Change for Women in Agricultural Value Chains," highlighting how countries like Kenya are embracing biotechnology and applying frontier innovations to increase agricultural productivity and improve food systems. Dr. Ochugboju underlined that Africa needs to focus more on how to gather resources locally to build resilience in food systems rather than focus on aid.
2019 Flag Carrier Callie Veelenturf
a marine conservation biologist and founder of The Leatherback Project, which is dedicated to leatherback sea turtle conservation throughout their global range, is working on an international campaign asserting the need to establish the legal rights for nature, which would provide a foundation for system change to directly address the way in which society interacts with nature. Callie worked with Panama’s President earlier this year to sign the Rights of Nature into the country’s laws. Panama joins a handful of countries that have enacted similar legislation, such as Italy, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uganda, and Chile. Callie was also at a UN General Assembly side event this fall speaking to support the adoption of a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights by 2030. See the highlights of this high-level roundtable here. Read more about Callie’s work here.