Dr. Ellen Boneparth, IWSI Director, former Dean, Professor, and Diplomat turned fiction writer, has sold her home in Greece, a converted olive press, and now resides with her husband in a Victorian in downtown Santa Rosa, California. Ellen has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford and taught political science and women's studies at San Jose State University. During her U.S. Foreign Service career, she served at the U.S. Embassy in Athens and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. She most recently lived in Hilo, Hawaii and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Hawaii, Hilo. She is the editor of two books and many articles on women and public policy.

Mara Lynn Keller (Ph.D., Philosophy, Yale University, 1971), is Director of the Women's Spirituality M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA. A philosopher, thealogian, and international lecturer, she has published articles on the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone, the goddess culture of ancient Crete, the archaeomythology of prehistory, and the Rosen Method of Bodywork and Movement. Formerly at San Francisco State University, she co-founded and directed the Global Peace Studies Program and taught philosophy and women's studies. Since the 1960s, she has been an activist for peace and social justice, affirmative action in higher education, women's reproductive rights, the prevention of violence against women and children, and a founder of the Green Party in California. In keeping with her goals of balancing body, mind and spirit, she is also a Rosen Method bodywork practitioner.

Lily Cincone, IWSI Assistant Director, has been part of the Institute since 1982. She is employed at the Global Fund for Women, an organization providing funding to women's organizations internationally working on women's rights issues. She has been on the board of California NOW, National Organization for Women, and the California NOW PAC. She earned her Master's at San Jose State University and had her thesis, "Sex Tourism in Thailand," published. She is working on a biography at present. Lily has lived in France, Italy and Mexico and has traveled extensively around the world. She now resides in Palo Alto, CA.

IWSI Web Designer Alexis Masters, is an alum from the 1892 Aegean Program. Now a published novelist, much of the inspiration for her writing intially came from her travels with IWSI. Her first novel, The Giuliana Legacy (HCI 2000), draws heavily on her experiences in Greece and Tuscany.