STAFF
MEREDITH AYAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Meredith Ayan has enjoyed a long career in nonprofit work, serving in leadership positions for multiple organizations focused on a wide array of issues. Before joining the WINGS leadership team, Ms. Ayan founded “In 100 Years” nonprofit consulting, advising clients on a wide variety of initiatives, including fundraising, event execution, and international and governmental relations. Prior to establishing her consultancy, Ms. Ayan served as the Executive Director of a global animal welfare nonprofit. Along with spearheading and expanding their programs and missions, she increased and diversified the organizations fundraising initiatives. Ms. Ayan has led animal welfare field work in over a dozen countries, including overseeing the historic mission of the removal of 15 puppies from the Chernobyl Nuclear Exclusion Zone, the first in 32 years. In 2018 she was named one of Salesforce’s Top 25 Trailblazers to Watch. Her work was most recently featured in the Netflix documentary series “Dogs” season 2, episode 3. She also serves as a board member for multiple nonprofits focused on the arts and animal welfare in NYC, Putnam County, NY and Tanzania.
Originally from Boston, Ms. Ayan has lived in NYC for 20+ years. She is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan college with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance, with a Ballet concentration. She is a Certified Fundraising Executive, a voluntary credential that recognizes experienced fundraising professionals aspiring to the highest standards of ethics, competence and service to the philanthropic sector.
EMILIE WELLES, FLAG CARRIER PROGRAM MANAGER
Emilie Welles is the Flag Program Manager and 2022 Women of Discovery Coordinator for WINGS. She has been working with WINGS since January 2022, though her history with the organization extends back almost 19 years. Emilie has had the privilege of watching the WINGS mission in action and met many of the Fellows and Flag Carriers. Now working with WINGS professionally, she is able to help a new generation of extraordinary women achieve their research and expedition goals.
Originally from New York City, Emilie graduated with a BA in American History from Montana State University in 2020 and is currently in the masters program at the University of Chicago, where she is furthering her research on World War II history in the South Pacific.
ALICE PEHRSON, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE
Alice has been working with WINGS since September 2022. Originally from Sweden but grew up in Greenwich, CT. Alice grew up traveling the world and has a passion for experiencing new cultures. Her background is in graphic design and marketing. Alice holds a BA from Northeastern University in International Affairs with minors in business, graphic design and global fashion. In addition, she has an MS in International Marketing and Brand Managment from Lund University in Sweden.
CLAIRE WERNER, CHAIR
Claire Werner is a graphic designer and owner of a design boutique in Connecticut. Claire holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design and has donated her time and professional expertise to a number of nonprofit organizations, including The Garden Education Center of Greenwich, YWCA and local schools and community institutions. She joined the WINGS WorldQuest Board in 2009 and has served as board secretary since 2012.
MAUD WELLES, VICE-CHAIR
Maud Welles, a board member since 2003 and a longtime advocate for women in science and exploration, is a portfolio manager at North Channel LLC. Prior to North Channel, Maud was a Director at UBS Asset Management and a Vice President at Chase Investors Management Corp. She is the Board President of International Print Center New York, and a Vice Chairman of the Cricket Island Foundation and the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation. Maud is a graduate of Dartmouth College and received her MBA from New York University. Maud’s interests include conservation, exploration, art, fly fishing, skiing and travel.
JEANINE MCHUGH, SECRETARY
Jeanine McHugh joined Emigrant Bank in July 2021 as its General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Prior to joining Emigrant Bank, Jeanine was with HSBC from 2013 through 2021. Her last role at HSBC was as the General Counsel for HSBC’s US retail and private banking divisions, which she held since 2016. Prior to that at HSBC, Jeanine was the Deputy General Counsel, Corporate, where she advised HSBC’s US businesses on a variety of general corporate matters, including its debt offerings and disclosure issues, as well as M&A matters. She also managed the employment law team and the legal risk assurance team. Prior to joining HSBC, Jeanine was the Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary at Pitney Bowes Inc. Previous to that, she was the Associate General Counsel, Corporate Affairs at Luxottica Group S.p.A. Jeanine began her legal career in 1997 at Skadden specializing in cross-border Corporate Finance and M&A, where she worked in the New York, London and Frankfurt offices.
Jeanine graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia among some of the first women to attend it as a co-ed high school after 147 years as an all-boys institution. As a corporate attorney, Jeanine was often the only woman “in the room.” Repeatedly, during high school and at Skadden, Jeanine witnessed how far women can go when they band together and lift each other up. It was women challenging tradition because they wanted the superior math and science education at Central High School that opened those doors for Jeanine and other women. Jeanine hopes through her service on the WINGS board to be able to open the doors of opportunity for more women in the sciences, just as women have opened those doors for her during her legal career. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from University of Miami School of Law. In her spare time Jeanine loves exploring the world with her husband and son, skiing and sail racing.
MARY BRITT, TREASURER
Mary Britt, a former Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, is a CPA specializing in nonprofit organizations. She has served as board treasurer since 2011.
ELISABETH DEWAILLY, ASSOCIATE BOARD CHAIR
Elisabeth Dewailly is a partner on an all-female, diverse, multi-generational team of financial advisors at Merrill Lynch. She is a CFP®, CSRIC™, CPFA and a strong proponent of impact investing. Prior to working at Merrill, Elisabeth specialized in STEM. She has worked in four research labs across the US and spent three years as an analyst and programmer at a hedge fund in DC. Elisabeth is a co-chair of the Black Professional Group and a co-chair of the Long Island BELT Responsible Growth Committee within Bank of America. She is also a member of the Women’s Growth Advisory Board within Merrill.
She is an Executive Council member of Ellevate, and a member of Nexus, NABA, and Harvard Alumni in Impact. She is a mentor of several young professionals, and she has been a member of the Junior Board since 2018. She frequently speaks on panels of diverse or women-led nonprofit organizations, including Alpha Kappa Alpha, Harlem Children’s Zone, and Watch her Win NY. She volunteers regularly and mentors diverse high school students in STEM preparing for college. Elisabeth graduated from Harvard University with a BA in HDRB (Biology) and Computer Science. She is a dual-citizen of France and the US and is fluent in French. In her spare time, she likes to bake, run, read and learn new languages.
ANN BANCROFT, FELLOW
Ann Bancroft is one of the world's preeminent polar explorers and an internationally recognized leader who is dedicated to inspiring women and girls around the world to unleash the power of their dreams. Through her various roles as an explorer, educator, sought-after speaker and philanthropist, Ann believes that by sharing stories related to her dreams of outdoor adventure, she can help inspire a global audience to pursue their individual dreams.
Ann's teamwork and leadership skills have undergone severe tests during her polar expeditions and provided her with opportunities to shatter female stereotypes. The tenacity and courage that define her character have earned Ann worldwide recognition as one of today's most influential role models for women and girls. She has been named among Glamour magazine's "Women of the Year" (2001); featured in the book Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century (1998); inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1995); named Ms. magazine's "Woman of the Year" (1987); and honored with numerous other awards for her accomplishments.
Ann is the first known woman in history to cross the ice to the North and South poles. In 1986 she dogsledded 1,000 miles to the North Pole as the only female member of the Steger International Polar Expedition, and in 1993 she led the 4-woman American Women’s Expedition to the South Pole, a 67-day 660-mile expedition on skis. In 2001 Ann and WINGS Fellow and polar explorer Liv Arnesen completed a 1,717-mile, 94-day trek to become the first women to sail and ski across Antarctica.
In 1991, Ann founded the Ann Bancroft Foundation (ABF), which “empowers girls to imagine something bigger” through grants, mentorship and ongoing development opportunities. Ann and Liv Arnesen also formed Bancroft Arnesen Explore (BAE) to inspire people, particularly women and girls, to follow their dreams. Their current project, BAE Access Water, is an initiative to complete an expedition on a major waterway on one continent every other year to bring attention to, and create a movement around, access to clean water. In 2000, they launched the BAE badge with Girl Scouts of the USA, engaging girls in all 50 states with leadership programs and activities focused on health, wellness, and fitness.
MANDË HOLFORD, PH.D, FELLOW
Dr. Mandë Holford is as an Associate Professor in Chemistry at CUNY Hunter College and The CUNY Graduate Center, with scientific appointments at the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medicine. Her joint appointments reflect her interdisciplinary research, which goes from mollusks to medicine, combining chemistry and biology to discover, characterize, and deliver novel peptides from venomous marine snails for manipulating cellular physiology in pain and cancer. Holford Lab investigates the power of venom to transform organisms and to transform lives when it is adapted to create novel therapeutics for treating human diseases and disorders.
Mandë believes we need a new deal with nature, where we appreciate its intrinsic value and make a serious effort to conserve, protect and restore as much of what remains and has been lost, and at the same time we understand how nature is essentially tied to our health, agriculture and economy. Venomous snails can help give us new medicines, new pesticides for agriculture, and also innovations to drive our economy. She has received several awards including being named a 2020 Sustainability Pioneer and 2015 New Champion Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum, a California Academy of Sciences fellow, the prestigious Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and honored as a Breakthrough Women in Science by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and NPR’s Science Friday.
Mandë is actively involved in science education, advancing the public understanding of science, and science diplomacy. She is cofounder of Killer Snails, LLC, an award winning EdTech company that uses tabletop, digital, and XR games about extreme creatures in nature, like snails that eat fish, as a conduit to advance scientific learning in K-12 classrooms. Mandë co-developed a premier Science Diplomacy course at The Rockefeller University to encourage early career scientists to think globally about the impacts of their research as it pertains to international relations and the transdisciplinary and transboundary challenges we have to tackle. A Life Member of the Council of Foreign Relations and an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, Mandë received her PhD in Synthetic Protein Chemistry from The Rockefeller University.
KRITHI KARANTH, PH.D, FELLOW
Dr. Krithi K. Karanth is the Chief Conservation Scientist and Director at the Centre for Wildlife Studies and Adjunct Faculty at Duke and National Centre for Biological Sciences. Her research in India and Asia spans 24 years and encompasses many issues in the human dimensions of wildlife conservation. She has conducted macro-level studies assessing patterns of species distributions and extinctions, impacts of wildlife tourism, consequences of voluntary resettlement, land use change, and understanding human-wildlife interactions.
As a scientist, Krithi has published over 100 scientific and popular articles, served on the editorial boards of Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, Conservation Biology, and Conservation Letters, mentored over 250 young scientists from India, US, Chile, UK, Australia and Indonesia, and engaged over 750 citizen science volunteers in her research and conservation projects. As a conservationist, she has designed Wild Seve, Wild Shaale, Wild Surakshe and Adopt a PHC programs.
As a storyteller, Krithi has collaborated with painters, illustrators, film-makers, and photographers. Krithi’s conservation and research work has been featured in 3 award-winning BBC Series – The Hunt, Big Cats, and Dynasties, and in documentaries by CBC and PBS. She has co-produced five documentaries: Wild Seve, Humane Highways, Wild Shaale, Flying Elephants and Wild Surakshe. In 2020 she co-starred with Kevin Pietersen in Save This Rhino: India by Disney Hotstar and National Geographic. She has written a bilingual children’s book with artist Raghava K.K. and is actively working on various other collaborations with artists.
Krithi is National Geographic Society’s 10,000th grantee and a 2012 Emerging Explorer. Her more than 45 awards and recognitions include the Eisenhower Fellowship, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, University of Florida’s Outstanding Young Alumnus, INK Fellow, India’s Power Women by Femina, Women of the Year by Elle India, Vogue Women of the Year and Seattle Zoo’s Thrive Conservation Leadership Award. In 2019, she received the GQ Man of the Year-Environmental Hero, Beyond Duke University Alumni Award for Service and Leadership, and the Rolex Award for Enterprise Laureates. In 2021, she became the first Indian and Asian woman to be chosen for the Wild Innovator Award and was also selected for the 2021 Aspen Ananta Fellowship and Government of India’s Invest India Women Achiever. In 2022, she won the ‘Varshada Kannadiga’ (Kannadiga of the year) award for her contributions to science and technology. Krithi has a Ph.D in Environmental Science from Duke, a M.E.Sc from Yale, and BS and BA degrees from the University of Florida.
MARGO ALEXANDER
Margo Alexander has served on the board of Acumen for two decades, the first decade as Board Chair and in its second decade as board member and Chair Emeritus. She has also served 11 years on the board of the New York Stem Cell Foundation.
Her 30 year career on Wall Street began as a research analyst eventually followed by executive roles in Research, Sales, Trading and Asset Management at Paine Webber. She was a member of the Executive Committee when UBS acquired the company and she later retired in 2003.
Margo graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Business School. Since 1970 she has lived in NYC and eastern Long Island.
CATHERINE CHALMERS
Catherine Chalmers is an artist and filmmaker who works at the intersection of science and nature. She does extensive research for each of her long-term, multimedia projects, and a direct engagement with the natural world is central to her practice. She has exhibited her artwork worldwide, including MoMA P.S.1, New York; MassMoca, North Adams; Kunsthalle Vienna; The Today Art Museum, Beijing; among others. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Out New York, ArtNews, Artforum and on PBS, CNN, NPR, and the BBC.
Two books have been published on her work: FOOD CHAIN (Aperture 2000) and AMERICAN COCKROACH (Aperture 2004). Her video “Safari” won Best Experimental Short at SXSW Film Festival in 2008. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010 and a Rauschenberg Residency in 2015. From 2016-2018 she was a Fellow at the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art. In 2018 she created a course called Art & Environmental Engagement and taught it at Stanford University. Her video “Leafcutters” won Best Environmental Short at the 2018 Natourale Film Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany, and the Gil Omenn Art & Science Award at the 2019 Ann Arbor Film Festival. She holds a B.S. in Engineering from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London.
MARTI MARACHE
Marti Marache has over 35 years of investment experience. She started her investment career at Shearson Lehman Brothers in her home state of Georgia. Early in her career, Marti spent much of her time traveling to Europe, servicing large foreign banks, and providing research and market analysis for their U.S. equity needs. She moved to New York City in 1989 to further her career in finance. She worked for Janney Montgomery Scott on their international-institutional desk, trading U.S. equities for foreign banks and large private clients. Marti transitioned to the retail side of the business in 2002 when she accepted an offer from Merrill Lynch. In 2008, she joined Citi-Smith Barney, which later became a part of Morgan Stanley. On May 14th, 2021, Marti launched Harbor Asset Private Wealth in order to better serve her clients’ needs in a fiduciary manner. Marti, the youngest of nine children, graduated summa cum laude from Pace University in New York City. She sits on the Endowment and Investment Committee for Christ Church in Greenwich. Marti and her husband, Mark, a Greenwich native, reside in Riverside, CT, with their two young boys, Tristen and Hayden, and their beloved family dog, Zulu, an African-bred Jack Russell terrier.
BETH NIXON
Beth Nixon is a photographer/producer. She worked as a producer for the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour and MainStreet Media in Chicago and Looking East and One World in New York. She has worked in Tokyo, Hong Kong, China, Greece, France and Australia, and hiked and rafted more than 30 US National Parks. She holds a BA from Princeton University, an MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a Certificate in Language and Literature from Peking University. Beth served as the WINGS Board Chair from 2018 through 2023 and currently chairs the Awards and Programs Committee.
NINA RUMBOUGH
Nina built her career in fashion P.R. and events, working at Lord and Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Peggy Jennings, and Holland and Holland, an almost 200-year-old British gunmaker and clothing retailer that offers handmade sporting rifles and shotguns. She was director of public relations in the US and met her husband Jan there in 1994.
Nina has served or is currently serving on the Board of New York City Mission Society, The Women’s Sports Foundation, American Museum of Natural History Advisory Board, The National Forest Foundation, Wings WorldQuest, National Institute of Social Sciences, HillwoodMuseum and Gardens, and VitalEdge Aid.
Recently Nina has begun investing in startup ventures, hoping to have an impact on the world. She supports companies that are focused on helping our environment, such as ones pursuing vertical farming and others in medical biotechnology that are searching for cures or vaccines.
In addition, some of Nina’s passions are photography, clay shooting and art. Nina has had many shows for her photography, and her work is displayed in many hotels and spas. Nina’s interest in photography stemmed from her lifelong interest in travel and different cultures. Secondly, her passion for shooting led her to compete for the US team at the Sporting Clays World Championship. Lastly, she very much enjoys visiting art museums with her friends but most importantly loves being a grandmother of 8!
HILLARY WALLACE
Hillary Wallace is the Principal Designer and founder of Simon-Wallace Design, a boutique interior design firm located in Soho. A graduate of the UCLA Interior Design Program, Hillary has professionally designed residential interiors for over twenty years. Her extensive portfolio includes projects in New York City, the Hamptons, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Vail, Belgium, Israel, Milan, and Iceland. When she's not designing and creating, Hillary spends her time traveling, with a goal of visiting every country on the map.
KAREN ZIEFF
Karen is a photographer who focuses primarily on event photography and private client work. Fine arts trained, she has exhibited worldwide. A passionate; traveler, sail racer and expert skier; she is also a keen side-kick on her partner John’s vintage motorcycles, and an adventurous mom to her young son. Karen became involved with WINGS in 2003 when she donated her services to photograph the Annual Gala. She was inspired by the extraordinary women she met and has been deeply involved with WINGS ever since. Zieff attended RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) - BFA, Brown University, and Studio Arts Center International, Florence, Italy. She joined the board in 2011 and served as the board chair from 2012 to 2015.
Photo credit Julie Skarratt Photography Inc.