Extraordinary Women Leaders in Speleology (EWLS)

Amy Morton was chosen to be featured in the  Extraordinary Women Cavers Guidebook and Magazine  for along side several other extraordinary women cavers in the 2017 August release of the annual publication. Amy has only been caving for three years but she has accomplished a lot in such a short amount of time. She became a caver by happenstance but she has always been an athlete at heart. As a young woman, she participated in physically demanding performances in the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps where she practiced every day in the heat for as much as 12-14 hours and toured around the country competing for five summers. She has taught color guard for 23 years and today she is the Color Guard Director at the University of Incarnate Word .  She also studied dance at one of the most distinguished dance programs in the country and has received numerous awards for her skill. Since becoming a caver, she has contributed to numerous mapping and exploration trips includ...

Cinthia Campos was chosen to be featured in the Extraordinary Women Cavers Guidebook and Magazine for along side several other extraordinary women cavers in the 2017 August release of the annual publication. Cinthia became interested in caving while attending an archaeology class in college. She is a certified HeartSaver and cave mapper/cartographer. Cinthia participates in the Quintana Roo Cave Mapping Project and has discovered 26 subterranean sites. She launched the Tarascan Cave Reconnaissance to survey sites in Michoacán, a region of Mexico that is largely unexplored and even did work to preserve bats in Mexican caves that were threatened by guano poachers. Welcome Cinthia and congratulations on becoming an EWC!

"There is a clear need in the speleology community to open safe spaces for women to not only participate in the speleology community but also to grow into the leadership role models.” Adriana F. Sánchez Cultural Resources Manager, President of Xanvil Culture and Ecology, and 2015 EWC #ScienceWomen #WLeadership #ewls www.ewls.org

Cristina was born in Mexico in 1966. She is a photographer as well as a Marine Biologist. For the past 20 years she has been working as a writer and photographer. In 2005 she funded the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). Cristina has elevated conservation photography to a whole new level. Back then when she started out with Nature and conservation photography it was considered taboo to talk about the environment. In 2010 she was awarded the Mission Award from North American Nature Photography Association; an organization that experiments with ideas to show how photographers can have an impact on conservation. The organization is now launching a non-profit called Sea Legacy whose mission is to share the power of photography and story-telling to raise awareness of biodiversity and marine conservation. Cristina uses her photography to show the importance of cave conservation. The destruction of species and landscapes ignited by her passion for conservation. S...

“I love exploration. There is something about being the first person in a passage ... it becomes yours.” Chrissy Richards Cave Diver with a Masters of Fisheries and Aquatic Science and 2014 EWC #ScienceWomen #WLeadership #ewls www.ewls.org

Over the years EWLS has found a many women leaders who have worked to contribute in cave archaeology. Read our top 10 below! Anges Milowka (23 December 1981 – 27 February 2011) was an Australian technical diver, underwater photographer, author, and cave explorer. She gained international recognition for penetrating deeper than previous explorers into cave systems across Australia and Florida, and as a public speaker and author on the subjects of diving and maritime archaeology. Read more here . Elen Feuerriegel was featured in our annual 2015 publication this April as an Extraordinary Woman Caver (EWC) and was one of the 6 women scientists who recovered and cataloged than 1200 hominid fossil elements in the South African Rising Star Cave. Congrats Elen. Read more here . Florence Guillot, speleologist for the past thirty years, is co-responsible for the speleological expedition IOWA 2014 in Papua-New Guinea. Guillot has a PhD in History and is an archaeologist and...

“Caves provide a place that is separate from all other places . . .  the darkness, the silence, and the formations that are only found underground, it is really difficult to describe the wonderful experience that each cave offers.” Errin Walker Environmental Planner and 2013 EWC #ScienceWomen #WLeadership #ewls www.ewls.org

Scientist, Rene Chavez and Denisse Argote from Mexico’s National Anthropology and History Institute were part of a group of scientists from the Autonomous University of Mexico that discovered a sacred sinkhole cave, known as a cenote, under Chichen Itza’s grand Kukulkan Castle Pyramid, which could shed new light on the ancient Maya civilisation. Mexico’s Kukulkan pyramid is one of the new seven wonders of the ancient world, renowned for its perfect astronomical geometry. “We know that in caustic areas, its surroundings have subterranean waters. So, taking into account the concept of the maternal womb, the origins of life and water which is the original of life, we have a double meaning which is very significant. Therefore, taking all these concepts into account we link it with a step to the sky in magical and religious thinking,” said Argote. #speleology #ScienceWomen #womencavers #ewls WLeadership Read more here: http://www.euronews.com/2015/08/14/sci...

Sánchez is an archaeologist and co-director of the Mensabak Archaeological Project (MAP) in the SouthernLacandon Rainforest of Chiapas, Mexico. She is member of the Jaguar Speleological Group in Mexico, the British Columbia Speleological Federation, and the Northern British Columbia Caving Club. She serves on the Board of Directors with EscaparARTE and the President and founding member of Xanvil, a Mexican organization dedicated to the promotion of Mayan culture and the conservation of the natural environment of Mesoamerica. We are glad to have you Adriana! Thank you for supporting women in caving! #womencavers #ScienceWomen #ewls #speleology Read more about Adriana here: ewls.org

Holley Moyes explores caves and examines artifacts to understand the rituals of ancient people. By studying the artifacts left by ancient Mayans, anthropological archaeologist and assistant professor at the University of California at Merced, Moyes hopes to both preserve Mayan culture and discover stories of these ancient people. Moyes has spent the past 20 years exploring more than 100 caves in Belize, finding everything from tools to sacrificial remains to everyday pottery, to uncover how the Mayans' ideologies were created and maintained. Discovering the why behind ancient people's decision-making allows us to understand the implications of their decisions. One particular ritual Moyes focused on was why Mayans performed human sacrifices deep inside of caves. Though it's a developing theory, Moyes believes the Mayans cared deeply about rain (their lands were dry for many months of the year) and left increasingly large sacrifices to their god, Chac, to lif...