It’s hard to believe that there are just a few short months until our 2025 WINGS Women of Discovery Awards Gala on October 9th! We’re looking forward to celebrating this years Fellows: Dr. Yara Barros, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Dr. Divya Karnad, Dr. Nurzhafarina Othman, and Dr. Grace C. Young. We hope you’ll join us in NYC this fall, both for the Gala and for our 2025 Global Explorers Forum on October 11th. You’ll find registration links for both events below.
Read on to hear about Flag Carrier Katie Hutchinson’s current expedition to the Ecuadorian Amazon, learn key takeaways from the recent WINGS-sponsored NYC OceanTech Summit, and find out about an exciting upcoming event with WINGS Fellow Anna Cummins on September 10th.
We look forward to seeing you in the coming weeks and months, as well as at our Women of Discovery Awards in October!
Yours in Exploration,
CEO, WINGS Women of Discovery
Purchase your tickets for our 2025 Gala and Forum
Please join us in celebrating this year’s WINGS Women of Discovery Awardees at our 2025 Women of Discovery Awards on October 9th, 2025. The Women of Discovery Awards were established in 2003 to recognize extraordinary women making significant contributions to world knowledge and science through exploration. You can purchase your tickets to this year’s Gala here.
We’re also excited to welcome you to this year’s Global Explorers Forum on October 11th, 2025. Hosted in tandem with the WINGS Women of Discovery Awards, the Forum showcases the work, challenges and expeditions of the most recent cohort of Fellows, who present their research before their peers and the public. You can buy your tickets to join us at this year’s Forum here.
Explorer Feature: Katie Hutchinson
Flag Carrier Katie Hutchinson is currently on expedition in Napo, Amazonian Ecuador. The goal of her expedition is to give voice to Indigenous women’s in-depth understanding of the living world in Amazonian Ecuador, and honor its necessity in protecting the region against climate change.
The Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the most biodiverse areas on earth, is threatened by climate change and habitat destruction. Within it, alongside the thousands of animal and plant species, live many Indigenous communities with vital knowledge of the rainforest, although this knowledge is being lost over time. With a particular focus on women within communities, Katie’s project aims to give voice to this in-depth understanding of the living world, honor its necessity in protection against climate change, and demonstrate the vitality of Indigenous inclusion in political decisions.
The above photo was taken following a focus group exploring food sovereignty and reforestation with local Kichwa women in Napo.
Highlights from the 2025 NYC OceanTech Summit, sponsored by WINGS
WINGS recently sponsored the second-annual NYC OceanTech Summit—a gathering of innovators, entrepreneurs, and researchers shaping the future of ocean technology. WINGS CEO Meredith Ayan delivered the event’s keynote address sharing how WINGS supports women scientists, conservationists, and explorers who are developing innovative solutions in OceanTech.
WINGS Associate Board co-chair Caroline Williams, Director of Data Science at High Tide Technologies, served as one of the event’s organizers. Caroline also curated a panel on “Data and the Ocean,” while WINGS Flag Carrier Grace Cordsen gave a presentation titled, “The Future of Tourism, Conservation, and Climate Storytelling in the Arctic and Antarctica.” Other highlights from the day’s proceedings included:
– I Have a Patent, Now What? Commercialization Pathways
– Recent Developments in Underwater Industry
– And an expo featuring everything from an advanced air-metal reaction power supply (Metal Light Inc.), to robotic harvested oysters (Seascape Aquatech Inc.), to hard tech ocean data monitoring (Sofar Ocean).
Learn more and sign up to be the first to learn about next year’s event at https://www.oceantechsummitnyc.com.
