Vel Phillips achieved many firsts, including first woman and first African American to be elected to the statewide office of secretary of state.

Mee Moua was the first Hmong American to be elected to a state legislature in the U.S.

Gwen Moore was the first African American from the state of Wisconsin to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Jessie Jack Hooper, a suffragist, was president of the Wisconsin League of Women Voters and also ran for the U.S. Senate in 1922.

Anita Herrera grew up in a family of migrant farm workers and devoted her career to improving education, employment, and living conditions for People of Color in Wisconsin.

Mildred Fish-Harnack was the only American woman to die by Adolf Hitler's direct order for spying on Germany during World War II.

Sarah Harder started the women's studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and built many women's coalitions in Wisconsin and nationally.

Lorraine Hansberry's first Broadway play, A Raisin in the Sun, changed how Black people's lives were shown in American theater.

A student activist in the 1960s, Ann D. Gordon became a history professor and an important scholar of women’s suffrage in the U.S.

Suzy Favor Hamilton is a record-breaking runner, a three-time Olympic athlete, and a vocal advocate for mental health.