Featured Changemakers

Discover more than 200 inspiring stories of past and present Rochester, Indigenous, and Haudenosaunee women visionaries, trailblazers, inventors, activists, and entrepreneurs who changed Rochester and the world. Get a glimpse of some of the featured Changemakers through these highlights.

Advocating for Change

  • Serásera Terrylynn Brant
  • Ida Breiman
  • Melisza Campos
  • Casandra
  • Terry Chaka
  • Major General Mary Clarke
  • Sue Costa
  • Betty Dwyer
  • Tonya Gonnella Frichner
  • Nancy Gong
  • Bessie Hamm
  • Sergeant Kathryn Hawkins
  • Isabel Herdle
  • Jeannie Hines-Clinton
  • Harriet Jacobs / Linda Brent
  • Tabitha Jacques
  • Mary Dehgewänus Jemison
  • Jeanette Jemison
  • Jikonsaseh
  • Mildred Johnson
  • Barbara “Cookie” Gah-wont-gah-tweh Jonathan
  • Marilyn Jonathan
  • Olivia Kim
  • Hkadin Lahtaw Lee
  • María Lopez
  • Nancy Lorraine-Dupree
  • Chandra Maracle
  • Alice Mathis
  • Maria Maybee
  • Rosetta Darby McDowell
  • Dorothy Layne McIntyre
  • Pamela Melroy
  • Carolyn Merchant
  • Constance Mitchell
  • Gertrude Herdle Moore
  • Joyce Reuben Nanticoke
  • Nancy Padilla
  • Nydia Padilla-Rodriguez
  • Ga-hah-no Caroline Parker Mt. Pleasant
  • Librada Paz
  • Danielle Ponder Esq.
  • Afshan Quereshi 
  • Helen Stone Reinhard
  • Hilda Rosario-Escher
  • Ngo Hna Sangaichho
  • Iotsitsisen: Sky Woman
  • Blanche Stuart Scott
  • Ruth Holland Scott, Ed.D.
  • Dawn Seymour
  • Gonwaiani Audrey Shenandoah
  • Ashley Shenandoah
  • Roxie Ann Sinkler
  • Louise Slaughter
  • Allison Smith
  • Kathy Melissa Ye Oin Dja Dag Smith, RN
  • Tonya Noel Stevens
  • Margaret Woodbury Strong
  • Ellen Stubbs
  • Annette Sundown Tahamont
  • Anne Tahamont
  • Yvonne Kanhotónkwas Thomas
  • Alissa Turner
  • Alexis Vogt, Ph.D.
  • Kristen R. Walker
  • Elizabeth Stevens Walls
  • Mayor Lovely Warren
  • Ruth Taiko Watanabe
  • Jessica Judy Weis
  • Rowen White
  • Dr. Alice Holloway Young

Enterprising for Change

  • Marilyn Ajavananda
  • Maggie (Ajavananda) Barry
  • Clara Barton
  • Tammy Beauvais
  • Wyoma Best
  • Winona Esther Blueye
  • Wilma Gertrude Boddie-Beaman
  • Lydia Estella Boddie-Peyton
  • Lydia Althea Boddie-Rice
  • Theresa Lou Bowick B.S.N., R.N.
  • Essie Calhoun-McDavid
  • Maia Chaka
  • 趙慶華 Mary Chao
  • Parvatha Chidambaram
  • Edline M. Chun
  • Isabella Dorsey
  • Janet Flores
  • Loretta Ford, Ed.D.
  • Lena Gantt
  • Annette Jiménez Gleason
  • Kate Gleason
  • Alma Kelso Coles Greene
  • Martha Matilda Harper
  • Norma Holland
  • Susan Riedman Holliday
  • Joan Coles Howard
  • Gayle Jagel
  • Harriet Kitzman
  • Kariwénhawe Dorothy Lazore
  • Michaelee Lazore
  • Mimi W. Lee  李文媛
  • Janet Lomax
  • Tina MacIntyre-Yee
  • Louisa Ong-Lee
  • Jackie Ortiz
  • Sophia Palmer
  • Linda Sue Park
  • Ida Pérez
  • Ana Lydia Pérez
  • Jane Plitt
  • Marion Craig Potter, M.D.
  • Daisy Rivera-Algarin
  • Kaluhyanu:Wes Michelle Schenandoah
  • Naomi Silver
  • Tara Tekahentakwa Tarbell
  • Georgena Terry
  • The University of Rochester Engineering Team
  • Kitty Van Bortel
  • Karina Vattana, M.D.
  • Mercedes Vázquez-Simmons
  • Lillian Wald
  • Abby Wambach
  • Harriet A. Washington
  • Rosa Wims
  • Louise Woerner
  • Nancy Woodhull

Inventing Change

  • Mara Ahmed
  • Carolyn Ajavananda
  • Aesha Ash
  • Tekatsi:tsia’kwa “Katsi” Cook Barreiro
  • Ruby Lavonzelle Sturgis Belton, M.D.
  • Kawennotákie Salli Benedict
  • Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D.
  • Esther Conwell, Ph.D.
  • Eunice Foote
  • Terry Geiger
  • Dr. Rebeca Gerschman
  • Martha Graham
  • Elva Jamieson
  • Randy Barbara Kaplan, Ph.D.
  • Ruby Lockhart
  • Ann Mitchell 
  • Jane Mt. Pleasant
  • Mridula Nair, Ph.D.
  • Shelley Niro
  • Dr. Juanita Pitts
  • Annette Ramos
  • Nadia Reiman
  • Natalie Rogers-Cropper
  • Sarah C. Rutherford
  • Joanne Shenandoah
  • Donna Strickland, Ph.D.
  • Ulali / Ulali Project
  • Mary Edwards Walker, M.D.
  • Almeta Whitis
  • Frances “Fannie” Barrier Williams
  • Minnie Rankin Wyman

Organizing for Change

  • Lucy Read Anthony
  • Mary Stafford Anthony
  • Susan B. Anthony
  • Beth Brant
  • Reverend Myra Brown
  • Abigail Bush
  • Anita Cameron
  • Susan Cowell
  • Ineabelle “Geena” Cruz 
  • Rachel Y. DeGuzman
  • Luticha André Doucette
  • Anna Murray Douglass
  • Elizabeth Victoria Duncan
  • Sady Fischer (she/her)
  • The Fox Sisters
  • Karonienhá:wi Matilda Joslyn Gage
  • Gawö:Sid-Tah Geraldine Green
  • Jean Brookes Greenleaf
  • Lisa Helen Hoffman
  • Samiha Islam
  • Gowehgyuse’ Beverly Jacobs, Ph.D.
  • Hester Jeffrey
  • Baek Byoung Joo (백병주 )
  • Linda Shintaku Marshall
  • Wanda E. Martinez-Johncox
  • Helen Barrett Montgomery
  • Caroline Erickson Perkins
  • Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry
  • Maria G. Porter
  • Amy Kirby Post
  • The Public Universal Friend
  • KaeLyn Elizabeth Lee Rich
  • Sisters of Saint Joseph
  • Rosetta Douglass Sprague
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
  • Emma Biddlecom Sweet
  • Saint Kateri Tekwitha
  • Rochester’s Topfree Seven
  • Sojourner Truth/Isabella Baumfree
  • Harriet Tubman
  • Reverend Vernice Smith Warfield
  • Agnes Williams
  • Stephanie Woodward