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 | (1934–2023) | 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 | (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 | (1936–2021) [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] | |