Iona Rothfeld
2019 Fellow
Founder and Director, National Women's Soccer Players Association in Chile (ANJUFF)
Iona Rothfeld is the Founder, Former President and current Director and Board Member of the National Women’s Soccer Players’ Association in Chile (ANJUFF). At age 23, she became the first person to unionize women soccer players in Latin America, starting a movement that has since exposed the discriminatory treatment of women soccer players in the region.
Iona has been recognized as a young woman leader promoting sports as a tool for political, cultural and social change. While in law school at the Universidad de Chile, Iona represented Chile’s national team for seven years. She also served as a legal advisor to the National Athlete’s Committee.
Iona holds a diploma in Sports Management from the CIES-FIFA and participated in the Social and Political Leadership School for Women run by Comunidad-Mujer and UNDP. Iona is currently a senior student athlete at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida and plans to graduate in December 2019.
She was selected as a Fellow for the 2019-2020 VV Engage Cohort.