We are pleased to introduce the candidates who have expressed interest in joining our Board of Directors. Each of these individuals brings unique skills, experiences, and a passion for our mission, and we are looking forward to working with them!
Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Colton promotes diplomacy, press freedom, and human rights/women’s rights through her global lecturing /teaching/writing, currently as a global professor with the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). She also serves pro bono as board-chair of Reporters Without Borders RSF-USA/North America and as Honorary Diplomat and Journalist in Residence at Warren Wilson College.
She is an Emmy Award-winning international/national/local journalist, including
- NPR’s diplomatic correspondent for ABC Radio News and NBC Radio News as Middle East correspondent
- Newsweek bureau chief
- Editor of 10 weekly Virginia newspapers
- Former UN international development planner
- US Foreign Service officer
- Peace Corps volunteer
- Fulbright Scholar
- MacArthur Fellow in Globalization Studies
- Author of books and articles
Liz holds a PhD in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She grew up in Asheville, NC and returned to living in her hometown since 2012. Liz has written and spoken out on the ERA on various occasions and is deeply proud of her mother, Marie W. Colton, who advocated for the ERA in the NC General Assembly and became the first Speaker Pro Tempore in the NC House of Representatives.
Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs has been fighting for social justice most of her adult life, helping to facilitate gender-centered events in Craven and Pitt counties and taking the lead in community activism.
Dr. Dudasik-Wiggs recently retired from East Carolina University where she had served as the co-director of the Gender (née Women’s) Studies Program for over 20 years, helping to create programming that brought diverse national speakers to campus. Housed in the Department of English where she taught writing skills and American women’s literature, she was also an active member of Harriot College’s Council on Anti-Racism and Equity.
Currently, she serves as the VP of the Democratic Women of Craven County and as the Deputy Director of the Region 10 Democratic Women of NC.