Explorers

Fellows

The WINGS Women of Discovery Fellowship is a distinct honor awarded to some of the highest achieving women in science, exploration and conservation. In recognition for joining this elite group, new Fellows receive an unrestricted grant to amplify their work and become part of a global network of women in STEM. They are celebrated at our annual Women of Discovery Awards Gala held in New York City each October.
Learn more about our 2025 Women of Discovery Awards Celebration.

Flag Carriers

WINGS Flag Carriers conduct original field research, carrying with them a flag bearing its own unique number; forever linked to heroic past global projects and discoveries. Our flags have flown over 80 countries, all continents and both poles. Grant funding is awarded to financially support the project, and original Flag Reports are published upon completion to share their discoveries.

Thandiwe Mweetwa

2018 Fellow

Thandiwe Mweetwa is a senior ecologist and community educator with the Zambian Carnivore Programme. Her work focuses on studying population dynamics and threats to survival...

Nalini Nadkarni

2018 Fellow

Nalini Nadkarni is known as the "Queen of the Forest Canopy." For three decades, she has used mountain-climbing techniques, construction cranes, and hot air balloons to...

Eleanor Sterling

2018 Fellow

Eleanor Sterling, Jaffe Chief Conservation Scientist, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC), American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Dr. Eleanor Sterling is passionate about the intersection...

Asha de Vos

2018 Fellow

Asha de Vos is a Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator and pioneer of blue whale research within the Northern Indian Ocean. She calls the...

Laly Lichtenfeld

2019 Fellow

Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld is committed to a world where communities and wildlife coexist and thrive. A twenty-year resident of Tanzania, she co-founded African People &...

Darlene Lim

2019 Fellow

Dr. Darlene Lim is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center. Darlene’s research is focused on how to integrate rapid science input...

Krithi Karanth

2019 Fellow

Dr. Krithi Karanth is the CEO of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, which combines innovative wildlife research with conservation, education and policy outreach. She also is Adjunct...

Gretel Ehrlich

2011 Fellow

An author of 13 books, poet, documentary filmmaker, former sheepherder and ranch hand, Gretel Ehrlich has truly done it all. She was born in Santa...

Diva Amon

2020 Fellow

Dr. Diva Amon is a Trinidadian deep-sea biologist with a special interest in deep-sea organisms and how human activity affects life far below the ocean’s surface....

Liz Taylor

2020 Fellow

Since 1992, President and CEO Liz Taylor and her team have grown DOER Marine (Deep Ocean Exploration and Research Marine) from a consulting and field services firm...

Jill Heinerth

2022 Fellow

JILL HEINERTH is one of the world's premier underwater explorers and the first person to dive inside iceberg caves. A pioneering explorer, award-winning filmmaker and...

Juliana Machado Ferreira

2016 Fellow

Dr. Juliana Machado Ferreira founded and serves as Executive Director of FREELAND Brasil, whose mission is to conserve biodiversity by ending wildlife trafficking.  She designs...

Hope Jahren

2016 Fellow

Hope Jahren is the "New York Times Best Seller" author of Lab Girl, a memoir about a woman in science and a lifelong love and...

Beate G. Liepert

2016 Fellow

Dr. Beate G. Liepert discovered during her graduate work at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich that declines in solar energy reaching Earth’s surface were equivalent...

Kristen Marhaver

2016 Fellow

Dr. Kristen Marhaver, a marine biologist, completed her NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship studying the ecology, reproduction, and juvenile behavior of Caribbean reef corals at the CARMABI...

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