Community leader Helen Connor Laird was the inspiration for the Laird Endowment Fund for the Arts in central Wisconsin.

Elected by the La Crosse Area Synod in 1992, Rev. April Ulring Larson became the first female Lutheran bishop in North America and the second in the world.

Belle Case La Follette was the first woman to graduate from law school in Wisconsin and an outspoken advocate for women's right to vote.

Ellen Kort was Wisconsin’s first poet laureate.

Ruth DeYoung Kohler was a journalist, a historian, and an outspoken advocate for women's rights.

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

Ada James was a Wisconsin suffragist leader who worked for women’s rights and other reforms in the early 20th century.

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

Best known for her work on gender, race, and class, University of Wisconsin graduate bell hooks was a prolific writer, speaker, and scholar.

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.