Extraordinary Women Leaders in Speleology (EWLS)

Tanya 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. Tanya is a Army veteran and traveling Laboratory Technologist. Her favorite aspect of caving is cave projects and especially mapping. Tanya attended the All-Grrs-Cave-Trip (AGCT) and the Northwest Caving Association Regional Event last year and has volunteered for many cave-related projects such as the TX Hydro Geo workshop , Buckaloo Cave survey, and the Spinx Cave clean up. Welcome Tanya! We are so happy you have become an Extraordinary Woman Caver!

Besides women cavers who are vets, EWLS would like to thank all the men out there that support women cavers and especially veterans! Khalvin Cook is a Navy veteran and retired Navy Seal. He works to support women cavers and serves as Vice President of EWLS. Khalvin was introduced to organized caving in 2010 when he met Lisa our president. He has been a major force of support for our organization and we are very happy to have him! Thank you Khalvin for your service. For those men who also support women cavers, use the hashtag #WeLoveWomenCavers and thank you all veterans for your service! Read more about Khalvin here: http://www.ewls.org/khalvin-cook-1.html

Hannah Davis is a US Coast Guard veteran and a lifelong caver. She currently works for the USGS as a hydrologic tech. She says "I get to do a lot of awesome science. I am proud to be a woma n veteran, caver and scientist." Thank you for your service Hannah! #ewls #ScienceWomen #womencavers #speleology  

Lynn joined the Army in 1976, where she trained as a Military Police Officer trainig a military police dog. She was sent to Germany where she reconnected with Phil Winkler and his family, though she got started caving much earlier. She began caving in her second year of college while at Montgomery College, Rockville, MD via Geology class where she was introduced to caving on trips led by Jim McCloud and Patrick Connor. Here she became secretary of the MC Geology Club and Sligo Grotto and she coordinated trips almost every weekend. “My first caving trip was Sinnett-Thorn at OTR in 1972. Jim got me to crawl into tight wet spots and soak up all the water!!!! All were total suck-ins!” she said with a smile. She became a member of the NSS in 1973.  In the early 1980's due to a physical injury, this inspired her to get involved with Cave Rescue with the Eastern Region NCRC where she took various basic and national level courses and later became involved with with setting standards for ...