Bobbi Wilson

Bobbi Wilson 2013– In February, 2023, the Yale School of Public Health honored 9-year-old Bobbi Wilson for her efforts to curb the presence of the invasive spotted lantern fly. In October 2022, after learning in school how to eradicate these insects, the fourth-grader was spraying these flies around her home in Caldwell, New Jersey. She… Continue reading Bobbi Wilson

Maisie Brown

Maisie Brown 2001– A Glamour woman of the year in 2022, at 21, Maisie Brown helped with the Mississippi water crisis, leading the effort to deliver drinking water to residents unable to access the city’s distribution centers. As a grassroots activist, she distributed 250 LifeStraw Home water-filtering pitchers to Jackson, Mississippi, households in just one… Continue reading Maisie Brown

Ruth Bateson

Ruth Batson 1921-2003 Inspired by her mother’s interest in civil rights, Ruth Bateson became the Chairman of the Public Education Sub-Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1953. In the early 1960s, she challenged the Boston School Committee. In addition to the Boston Public Schools being largely segregated, she… Continue reading Ruth Bateson

Mari Copeny

Mari Copeny 2007– Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny captured the nation’s attention when she became an advocate for clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan at the start of the water crisis in 2014. In 1916, when she was eight, she wrote a letter to President Barack Obama bringing international attention to lead-tainted drinking water in her hometown.… Continue reading Mari Copeny

Allyson Felix

Allyson Felix 1985– Allyson Felix is both the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history and the most decorated American track and field athlete in Olympic history. She earned 11 total medals from five consecutive Olympic Games. In 2018, pregnant Felix developed pre-eclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure along with a… Continue reading Allyson Felix

Annie Easley

Annie Easley 1933 -2011 Two weeks after reading an article on twin sisters working as human computers, Annie Easley began a career in 1955 as a ‘human computer’, doing computations for researchers. This involved analyzing problems and doing calculations by hand. In the face of discrimination, her motto was “[I]f I can’t work with you,… Continue reading Annie Easley

Ellen Jackson

Ellen Jackson 1935–2005 Ellen Swepson Jackson was an American educator and activist. She is best known for founding Operation Exodus in 1965. This program bused students from overcrowded, predominantly black Boston schools to less crowded, predominantly white schools in the 1960s. Operation Exodus paved the way for the desegregation of Boston’s public schools.