The Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to history of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
The organization was founded and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2010 to recognize accomplished women who have impacted the development of the state of Tennessee and improved the status of other women.[1] It is the brainchild of the Women's Economic Council Foundation, Inc. and the Tennessee Economic Council on Women.[2]
The criteria for induction into the Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame is that women were born in and achieved recognition within the state; are or have a resident in Tennessee for an extended period of time or adopted Tennessee as their home state. Additional criteria includes women who,:[3]
The hall inducts new members annually or bi-annually and includes both contemporary and historical women or organizations which benefit women.[4]
Name | Image | Birth–Death | Year | Area of achievement |
---|---|---|---|---|
Joy Bishop | (1934-) | 2015 | First career Air Force woman appointed to the Senior Executive Service[5] and served as the Women's Program Coordinator.[6] | |
Lizzie Crozier French | (1851-1926) | 2015 | Founder of the Knoxville Female Institute and the Tennessee Suffrage Association[7] | |
Elizabeth Rona (de) | (1890-1981) | 2015 | First woman to teach chemistry in any university in Hungary, in the United States, she served on the Manhattan Project[8] | |
Janice M. Holder | (1949-) | 2015 | First woman Chief Justice of Tennessee[9] | |
Rosetta Miller-Perry | (1934-)[10] | 2015 | Founder of the Greater Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce, and co-founder, publisher and journalist of Perry & Perry Publishing Company[11] | |
Margaret Rhea Seddon | (1947-) | 2015 | One of the inaugural group of women astronauts of NASA[12] | |
Zulfat Suara | 2015[13] | Chair and founder of the American Muslim Council of Tennessee[14] | ||
Carol Gardner Transou | (d. 2021)[15] | 2015 | 1987 Tennessee Teacher of the Year and first Tennessee Teacher-Scholar of the National Endowment for the Humanities[16] | |
Margaret L. Behm | (c. 1951)[17] | 2013 | Co-founded Shipley & Behm, the first all-woman law firm in Nashville[18] | |
Wilsie S. Bishop | (1949)[19] | 2013 | First woman Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of East Tennessee State University[20] | |
M. Inez Crutchfield | (c. 1925-)[21] | 2013 | First African American to hold an appointed and elected statewide position in the Tennessee State Federation of Democratic Women[22] | |
Shirley C. Raines | (1945-)[23] | 2013 | President of the University of Memphis[24] | |
Becca Stevens | (1963-) | 2013 | Founder of Magdalene House[25] | |
Jocelyn Wurzburg | (1940-)[26] | 2013 | Orchestrated an interfaith and inter-racial group response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.[27] | |
Pat Summitt | (1952-2016) | 2011 | Most all-time wins for a coach in NCAA basketball history of either a men's or women's team in any division[28] | |
Martha Craig Daughtrey | (1942-) | 2010 | First Tennessee woman to be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit[29] | |
Jane G. Eskind | (1933-2016) | 2010 | First woman to win a statewide election in Tennessee[30][31] |