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Staff

Marga C. Fripp

Art Marketing Coach and President of EWI

Marga Fripp, the Founder and President of Empowered Women International, is an art marketing coach, journalist and entrepreneur with over 15 years experience in managing non-profits, marketing, art management, media relations, gender and entrepreneurial development. She has a passion for empowering women to make a living from their work and thrive as leaders, educators, global citizens and entrepreneurs.
Over the past seven years since immigrating to the United States, she has worked with hundreds of immigrant and American-born women of all media and cultural backgrounds, and helped build their careers and businesses. Through her vision and work, Marga gives voice to immigrant, refugee and culturally diverse women by promoting their art and cultures, and leading them to entrepreneurial success.
In 2008, she formed Entrepreneurship Academy for Artists as a business school for artists to expand art marketing, business workshops and coaching services to artists, artisans, educators, arts organizations and entrepreneurs in creative industries.
Click here to read Marga’s full bio.

 

Shannon Lynberg

Program Manager
Shannon Lynberg is a dedicated advocate for women’s issues and women’s empowerment, both domestically and internationally.  For the last five years, Shannon has worked with nonprofits and public health agencies on women’s empowerment, women’s health, and ending gender-based violence.
Prior to joining EWI, Shannon served as the Program Director of the Younger Women’s Task Force under the National Council of Women’s Organizations, where she worked with younger women across the U.S. to develop leadership trainings and raise awareness about the issues affecting women in their 20s and 30s.  In 2009, Shannon co-founded Holla Back DC!, a local organization that aims to build a community free of public sexual harassment and assault though both online and offline organizing.  In 2007, Shannon worked at PR Solutions, an organization that develops strategies to help nonprofit advocacy groups educate the public.
While in college, Shannon was awarded the Tonya Fellowship by Sewanee, the University of the South in order to work the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she worked to tailor sexual assault prevention programs for college and university campuses. She also worked with Dekalb County Board of Health designing cardiovascular health outreach initiatives for Latina’s in Atlanta.
As someone passionate about ending all forms of gender-based violence, Shannon has volunteered as an advocate for sexual assault survivors at the DeKalb County Rape Crisis Center (in Atlanta) and the DC Rape Crisis Center, spent time researching femicide in Guatemala, and is the co-author of the 2010 report Understanding Sexual Violence at a Large, Urban University.  Shannon holds a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and hopes to pursue a Masters degree in the future. Shannon was featured as one of “Tomorrow’s Leaders” in the November 2008 issue of “O, The Oprah Magazine” and nominated for the “Young Woman of Achievement” award by WIN in 2009. Shannon has spoken at numerous conferences across the U.S. about women’s issues, women’s empowerment, and gender-based violence.  Shannon lives in Mount Pleasant and when she is not working, she enjoys traveling, yoga, and exploring DC.
 
You can contact Shannon through email at shannon@ewint.org.

 

Erin Pray 

Outreach and Volunteer Manager- AmeriCorps VISTA
Erin Pray is devoted to promoting sustainable economic development and the tenants of fair trade.  While obtaining her Bachelors Degree in fashion merchandising with a minor in business at Virginia Commonwealth University, she focused her studies on the fair trade movement within the fashion industry.
In the summer of 2007 Erin became part of a select group of VCU students to participate in the “The Spirit of Fashion” program, a line development project in collaboration with a women’s weaving cooperative in rural Tecpan, Guatemala.  The group developed a line of T-shirts and handbags that celebrated Mayan culture through the incorporation of symbols, colors and meanings, mirroring traditional Mayan dress.  Their goal was to create a sustainable source of income for the women by utilizing their weaving skills and creating a product that was marketable to American consumers.  Upon return to the United States she spearheaded the campaign to import, promote and sell the finished products at VCU’s college campus, as well as raise donations to further the project.  This life-changing experience encouraged Erin to devote her future to finding ways to improve the lives of other women by creating sustainable sources of income through their work.
She joined the EWI team in March of 2011 to help build the organization’s Etsy page and transitioned to become Outreach Coordinator through Americorps VISTA in June of 2011.  In her past career, Erin worked as personal shopper for the fashion retailer Anthropologie in the Garden City, New York, and Georgetown, DC, stores.  She hopes to use her flair for merchandising and enthusiasm for the message of EWI to highlight and showcase the beautiful work of the talented immigrant women of our community.
 
You can contact Erin through email at erin@ewint.org

 

INTERNS

 

Kristina Villavicencio

Non-Profit Management Intern

Kristina Villavicencio is interning at Empowered Women International for the Spring 2012 semester.  She is a senior at George Mason University with a major in Marketing.  She is originally from Leesburg, VA and was born in the Philippines.  She chose this internship because it combines her passion for art and women joining together for a great cause.  Although her major is business, art is her true love and she hopes to combine both these aspects into a successful career.  Kristina has participated in community service, philanthropy projects, and workshops pertaining to the strength and unity of young women through her student organization.  Her hobbies include reading, cooking, and painting.

 

 

Perri Weldy

Entrepreneur Training for Success Intern

Perri Weldy is a graduate of Mary Baldwin College, an all-women’s college in Staunton, Virginia. She double majored in International Relations and Asian Studies and minored in Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution. While attending MBC, Perri was involved in campus groups and organizations such as SOULS (a LGBTQ awareness/support group), Quest (an interfaith community), and Big/Little Sisters. She also worked as a Resident Advisor where she counseled up to 40 freshman women, part of the Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership, through personal and academic difficulties. Perri is excited to promote success among women, again, by working with EWI. In her free time Perri enjoys traveling and she has interests in art, music, and ballet.

 

Sine Jeong

Micro-Enterprise Marketing Intern

Sine Jeong is a Micro-Enterprise Marketing intern for Spring 2012. She majors in Information Sociology and minors in Public Relations at Hanyang University in South Korea. She shows her keen interest in marketing public relations, social media communication and research, not to mention her accomplishments in various projects in given field. She recently worked for Korean Internet Communication Association. During her stay, she was in charge of the organization’s social media program. Sine Jeong is a passionate, positive and self-motivated woman whom is thrilled to work at EWI.

 

 

 

Hellina K. Temesgen

Development Intern

Hellina K. Temesgen is a development intern at Empowered Women International. She moved to theUnited States recently and is excited to work in non-profit organizations especially in the area of women empowerment. She is a social worker by profession and has over five years of experience in international development, human rights, democracy, governance, and conflict resolution with special emphasis on women and young people.  Her core competencies include strategic planning, program management, program design and proposal writing, monitoring and evaluation, grants management, office administration and capacity building.

While in Ethiopia, she worked extensively with non-profit organizations and has demonstrated expertise in managing diversified and multiple development programs both at grassroots, national and international levels.  The majority of her experience has been devoted to the empowerment of disadvantaged segments of the society. While in college, she conducted various research on women’s issues with a special emphasis on the ‘economic empowerment of women’ and the ‘double face of women’s rural-urban migration in Ethiopia’. As a Program Manager working in the Network of Ethiopian Women’s Association, she actively promoted women’s social, economic and political empowerment through the advancement of women’s rights and eliminating harmful traditional practices against girls/women including FGM. She also promoted girls’ education through Alternative Basic Education programs in the rural part of Ethiopia which contributed to the enhancement of literacy rate among girls in Ethiopia. As a focal person and assistant to the project manager for the Swedish International Development Agency’s Training Program on Women’s Human Rights towards Gender Equality, she oversaw the implementation of 5 rounds of national training and empowered civil society organizations to better promote women’s rights and gender equality. She has participated in various workshops on the issue of Women’s Empowerment and shared her experience. As a Project Manager in a German based foundation called Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, she was enthusiastically working on the program of youth empowerment with the belief that intervention at the young age could play a big role in setting a vision and personal goal for success as well as in nurturing their leadership potential. She also promoted democracy and good governance by working with various civil society groups and civic organizations.

She is very passionate and excited to advance her career in the non-profit sector in the US working with the empowerment of women.  In her free time, she enjoys watching movies, traveling, and reading.

Emily Robinson

Social Media Intern

Emily serves as Social Media Intern for Empowered Women International for the Spring 2012 semester. She also works at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, VA where she serves as Development Assistant. Emily is currently a graduate Arts Management student at Mason where the focus of her work has been on Development and Social Media Marketing. She recently completed an internship with the College of Visual and Performing Arts Development Department. Emily has previously worked with Adventure Theatre, James Madison University. Emily holds a BA in musical theatre from James Madison University. Her other interests inclined baking, scrapbooking and running.