WASHINGTON, D.C. — Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), the leading national women’s organization dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well-intended, but actually enhance people’s freedom, opportunities, and well-being, announced today its spring 2023 class of fellows.
“We are thrilled to welcome this outstanding cohort of fellows,” said IWF Vice President for Policy Hadley Heath Manning. “These women bring extensive knowledge, well-founded expertise, and distinctive viewpoints to IWF. We look forward to seeing their work take shape this spring and ultimately support us in our mission to develop and advance policies that aren’t just well-intended, but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices and well-being.”
Learn more about these women below:
Keri Ingraham is a fellow of Discovery Institute and director of the Institute’s American Center for Transforming Education where she focuses on educational freedom and parent empowerment. Prior to joining Discovery Institute, she spent nearly two decades leading within the field of education as a national consultant, requested conference speaker, head of school, virtual and hybrid academy director, administrator, classroom teacher, and athletic coach. She joins IWF’s Education Freedom Center as a visiting fellow.
Ellie Krasne is a writer, policy consultant, and senior fellow with Parents Defending Education Action where she researches, writes, and creates strategies that advance parental rights, free speech, free markets, and reduce government red tape. Her areas of expertise are: education and parental rights, woke capitalism and ESG, Critical Race Theory (CRT), Judaism and antisemitism, religion, and business regulations. Her work has received scholarly mentions and has been cited by the Family Research Council and the National Center for Policy Research. It has also been featured in a variety of publications including the Washington Examiner, The Daily Signal, the Jewish News Syndicate.
Karina Lipsman grew up in Soviet-controlled Odesa, Ukraine where equality was non-existent. Her expertise in international diplomacy, geo-political strategy, conflict resolution, cyber, space, defense operations, and implementation of U.S. global defense systems spans almost two decades. Most recently, Karina served as the 2022 U.S. Congressional nominee for Virginia’s 8th district. In this capacity, she was the only Ukrainian-born refugee immigrant nominated to run for Congress in the entire country.
Srilekha Palle is a healthcare executive with over two decades of experience. As a primary care provider in physical therapy and rehabilitation services, she is passionate about promoting data-driven clinical decisions and achieving better patient-centered outcomes. Dr. Palle earned her Doctorate in physical therapy from Boston University and her MBA, with a focus on healthcare administration, from the IIBM Institute of Business Management.
Erin Perrine is a political and corporate communications consultant. A communications expert with over a decade of experience, she strives to provide in-depth and thoughtful pushback to the media and press, as this is essential in ensuring Americans have the complete picture of an event and how a specific policy or outcome will affect them directly.
Kimberly Ross is a freelance writer with a passion for independent thinking and a commitment to dissecting the news and what it means for Americans. A mother of two, she is most passionate about issues that affect the well-being of women and children.
Madeline Fry Schultz is a tireless advocate for policies that will actually brighten women’s futures with writing and editing experience in news, culture, lifestyle, and public policy media. In her role at the Washington Examiner, she reviews opinion articles and writes her own cultural commentary pieces.
Emma Posey Waters is a research associate with The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family. Emma conducts policy research analysis and writes on a variety of important issues, including poverty, marriage and family formation, femininity, the influence of technology, and more.
Havilah Wingfield is currently a public policy graduate student at Regent University and is trained in research methods and analysis of legislation, case studies, current events, and academic authors. She is also a Health Reformers Academy fellow where she focuses on the state of the U.S. healthcare system and potential free-market reforms in healthcare financing, reducing waste, and improving accessibility.