Eliza Woloson

Eliza Woloson has spent her thirty-year career advocating for women and globally to have equal access to inclusive education. She is an author, applied anthropologist, and co-founder of Women Have Wings, a global human rights award established by selling Amelia Earhart's Electra 10-E sister-ship. To date, one hundred and seventy activists have been recipients of the Women Have Wings Award, infusing in-country movements with desperately needed resources, increasing awareness of women’s rights, and fostering collaboration between award recipients and the United Nations. As an anthropologist, Eliza founded Global Education Fund, which merged with Girl Rising, an organization that uses the power of storytelling to change how the world values girls and their education.

In 2014, along with other parents of children with intellectual disabilities, Eliza co-founded the Initiative for Inclusive Post-Secondary Education in Colorado. From this initiative and Eliza’s statewide research, Senate Bill 196 was signed, and college campuses throughout Colorado became inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities. As a result of this Bill, Eliza and her husband Todd’s eldest daughter, Isabelle, was the first young woman with Down syndrome to graduate from a four-year college in Colorado. Eliza is a delegate for the UN Commission on the Status of Women, an active member of the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership at UN Women, and an advisor at Our Secure Future. “My Friend Isabelle” is a Colorado best-seller and won the i-Parenting Media Award. Named a “Women of Distinction” by NGO Committee on the Status of Women, 2017, and a “Global Luminary” by UN WPHF, 2025, Eliza has received numerous awards for her work.