NY consulate’s Women’s Day awardee driven by higher purpose

Philippine Consulate honors distinguished Filipino women NYC Housing Commissioner Maria Torres Springer (from left); Womensphere founder and CEO Ana Lisa Balares; Broadway star Ali Ewoldt; TV journalist Elaine Quijano; and ConGen Tess de Vega. INQUIRER/Elton Lugay

NEW YORK—She was born to a family of men who are feminists and at 12 years old she became a junior barangay captain in her hometown in Manila.

Today, Analisa Leonor Balares is founder-CEO of Womensphere, a global community incubating and accelerating women and girls to create the future.

Balares was among the four Filipino women in New York honored by the Philippine Consulate General March 15 on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

The other three distinguished women were Broadway star Ali Ewoldt who became well-known for being the first Asian-American actress to star in the “Phantom of the Opera”; CBS News anchor Elaine Quijano who made headlines last year for becoming the first Asian-American woman and youngest journalist to host a U.S. national elections debate; and New York City Housing Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer.

In her acceptance speech, Balares narrated her inspirational past and honored her family for working relentlessly to send her to school.

New York community leaders celebrate Women’s History Month at the Philippine Consulate. INQUIRER/Elton Lugay

“The work that I do at Womensphere is about the empowerment of women,” she told the audience.

“We have a mission and a vision of empowering one billion women and girls between now and 2030. A pretty massive, big, hairy, audacious goal, which I think is worth spending the next 14 years doing. And obviously it’s not something we would be doing alone. We would be doing this in partnership and collaboration with leaders like you who are similarly inspired to live for this purpose,” Balares said.

A graduate of Manila Science High School and scholar in Canada and Massachusetts, Balares holds an MBA from Harvard and a certificate in digital filmmaking from the New York Film Academy. She has also been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a recipient of the Madam C.J. Walker Leadership Award from the National Minority Business Council. She was also recently selected as a NASA datanaut.

Recalling her struggle as a 17-year-old trying to adapt to a new way of life in America, Balares said she drew strength from her roots in rural Philippines, where her family had few options to make a living other than farming and selling food.

“When I think about that and the context of what my mother and grandmother had to go through, it puts me into perspective and gives me strength and courage to do what I do now because if they could prevail over the circumstances of rural Philippines at the time, I could prevail in whatever circumstances are in front of me. So when I think of strength and empowerment, I draw strength and power from my roots,” Balares said in her speech.

Introduced to youth leadership development programs when she was 12, Balares also paid tribute to mentors in Manila who taught her that anyone, including young persons, could make a difference.

“When I was 12, I was a junior barangay captain; when I was 16, I was a junior mayor of Manila. They gave us actual responsibilities. They trained us to be leaders. I had mentors: the actual barangay captain, the actual mayor of Manila. And because of these responsibilities and the message they shared: you as a young person, it doesn’t matter how old you are, what part of the community you come from and what economic class; it doesn’t matter what your gender is but you, young person, you can make a difference,” she said.

“And that is something that I carry to this day. So when I organize emerging leaders’ conferences in this country and around the world, it’s with that same belief that was given to me that is resonated up to today. It’s a powerful message that no matter what part of the world you’re from, whatever economic class you’re from, or whatever gender, you can make a difference,” she added.

As a teenager, Balares was chosen by then President Corazon Aquino to be one of the country’s representatives to an inaugural science conference in Asia. This likewise triggered in her a sense of purpose that is now transformed into a global advocacy for women.

“This was really an amazing honor that Malacañang bestowed upon the four of us 13-year-olds to represent our country and to bring back knowledge to our country around science and technology and how our country could develop further in these areas.

ConGen Tess Dizon de Vega (left) and Elaine Quijano (CBS news anchor) who made headlines last U.S. elections for making history as the first Asian and the youngest journalist to moderate a national debate. INQUIRER/Elton Lugay

“So the power of this purpose that we were given was so palpable that I took it to heart. Not only did I take it to heart when I was 13, it became a calling for me in my teenage years,” Balares recalled.

At the time, she and her teammates became outstanding junior scientists trying to figure out “how we could use science and technology for sustainability in the Philippines.”

It is the same inspiration that she applies to her present-day work: empowering women and girls. Science and technology can be used to explain “how can we use what we know and what we have to truly make a difference in the world, and to create a much more sustainable world,” according to the founder-CEO of Womensphere.

Balares said the sense of higher purpose has been more motivational to her than any title, profit sharing or any bonus that anyone could ever give her.

“If we hitch our purpose for why we do the things that we do upon something that is greater than us—we will find that there is a reservoir of power there that is fairly intimate that we can tap upon, that we will rise upon whatever circumstances are around us to be able to deliver something that is much greater than if we were solely doing it for ourselves,” she concluded.