Zoe Dunning was one of the only openly LGB members of the U.S. military for 13 years and spoke out against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.

Ruth Harman Walraven was a trailblazing female pilot in the mid-20th century.

Transgender advocate Sheri Swokowski, a former colonel in the U.S. Army, has worked to end discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Janet Jennings, a news reporter, became known as “the Angel of the Seneca” for her heroic nursing work during the Spanish-American War.

Cordelia Harvey became known as the Wisconsin Angel for her work as a nurse and advocate for soldiers during the U.S. Civil War.

Laurel Clark was an accomplished doctor, U.S. Navy captain, and NASA astronaut who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Dickey Chapelle was the first female American war correspondent to parachute with American troops and the first killed covering combat.

Miriam Ben Shalom was a drill sergeant in the U.S. Army before being discharged for her sexual orientation; she was later the first LGBT serviceperson ever reinstated.

Before Ineva Reilly Baldwin championed the “Wisconsin Idea,” she was a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant commander during World War II—the highest rank ever attained by a woman at that time.

Ellen Ainsworth, a nurse in the US Army Nurse Corps, was the only woman from Wisconsin to die from enemy fire in World War II.