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