Women in STEM Across America

American Samoa, Isabel Gaoteote Halatuituia

Isabel Gaoteote Halatuituia is the education coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s (NOAA) National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. Through her educational programs, she aims to encourage children in her home community to take an interest in marine biology. Halatuituia has lived in American Samoa since she was three years old.

Image credit: NOAA/Iosefa Siatu’u

Alaska, Ariel Tweto

Pilot and TV personality Ariel Tweto is an Inupiaq woman who grew up in Unalakleet, Alaska. You might have seen her in the 2011 Discovery Channel show Flying Wild Alaska, or in the 2020 documentary film Into Nature’s Wild. She is also the founder of the non-profit organization Popping Bubbles, which is dedicated to helping people from remote communities overcome any barriers that prevent them from living happy and successful lives.

Image credit: MacGillivray Freeman Films

Arizona, Dr. Laurie Leshin

A graduate of Arizona State University, Dr. Laurie Leshin is the current director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Leshin is a geochemist and space scientist who continues work on cutting-edge space research. She led the charge for ASU to create its now prestigious School of Earth and Space Exploration. Asteroid 4922 is named in her honor.

Image credit: NASA

Arkansas, Dorothy McFadden Hoover 

Dorothy Estheryne McFadden Hoover was an accomplished aeronautical engineer, mathematician, and researcher born in Hope, Arkansas, in 1918. After earning her B.S. in mathematics at the age of 19, she became one of the first six Black women hired by the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (a precursor to NASA) as a mathematician at their Langley facility. She was also the first woman in the United States to earn two technical masters degrees. She engineered the ‘thin sweptback tapered’ wing design that is still used by commercial aircrafts today. Her yearbook quote from University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff reads “she handles big words as though she teethed on Webster’s dictionary.”

Image credit: Leonhard Lenz (via Wikimedia Commons)

California, Dr. Martine Rothblatt

Martine Rothblatt grew up in California and earned multiple degrees in communications, business, and law from UCLA. She helped found two household name companies: Sirius Satellite Radio (now known as Sirius XM) and United Therapeutics. She is also an airplane and helicopter pilot and is interested in electric aviation. She currently serves on the advisory council for the upcoming Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum and uses her platform to advocate for the rights of transgender women like herself.

Image credit: Photo by Yevhen Gulenko, courtesy of Oberlin College and Conservatory

Colorado, Dr. Jessica Watkins

Jessica Watkins is a geologist, aquanaut, and astronaut. She has worn many hats, working as an international rugby player and college basketball coach all while conducting scientific research and working at NASA as a researcher and astronaut. Watkins was the first Black woman to complete a long-term ISS mission in 2022 with SpaceX Crew-4 and was the first person to publish a scientific paper from space. 

Image credit: NASA

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Dr. Annette Pladevega-Sablan 

Annette Pladevega-Sablan is a scientist and educator from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ (CNMI) Public School System. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s and doctoral degree in education. She has published her work in Nature magazine and has made significant contributions to the field of antiretroviral treatment. Most recently, she studied the effects of brown tree snakes on the limestone forests in the Mariana Islands. She taught high school science for many years and is currently the CNMI's Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) director, helping “districts, schools, and teachers make informed, data-driven decisions to improve student learning.

Image credit: CNMI Public School System

Connecticut, Eunice Newton Foote

Eunice Foote was an inventor, climatologist, and activist born in Goshen, Connecticut, in 1819, and she has only recently been recognized for her work studying the greenhouse gas effect. In the 1800s, Foote discovered that carbon dioxide would contribute to global warming, though the credit for this discovery was given to a man who published similar research three years later. She was lost to history until historians began to study her work in the 1970s. In addition to her work as a scientist, Foote was also a known suffragette and activist for women’s rights.

Image credit: Library of Congress

Delaware, Dr. Marianna Safronova

Marianna Safronova is an atomic physicist who teaches at the University of Delaware. She primarily researches atomic clocks, dark matter searches, and quantum computing and information – though she also leads the ‘Safronova Group’ researching other avenues. She currently has well over 200 publications to date. Safronova was named an American Physical Society (APS) fellow in 2011 and the APS Woman Physicist of the Month in 2012 for her dedication to research and mentorship. 

Image credit: University of Delaware

District of Columbia, Bridgit Mendler

Many young people probably recognize Bridgit Mendler, who was born in DC, from her acting roles in Lemonade Mouth, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Good Luck Charlie, but recently she's gone viral for pivoting into STEM. For her 2020 master’s thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she co-invented the app interface OurStory to create a Dispute System Design for a company's stakeholders. She aims to graduate with a doctorate from the MIT Media Lab in 2024.

Image credit: Flickr user friedoxygen

Florida, Shaesta Waiz

Born in Afghanistan and raised in America, Shaesta Waiz became the youngest woman to circumnavigate the planet by herself in a single-engine aircraft in 2017 (a record that has since been broken by Zara Rutherford in 2022). She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where she also created the University’s Women’s Ambassador Program. She received the National Air and Space Museum’s Michael Collins Trophy for Current Achievement in 2018.

Image credit: Dreams Soar, Inc 

Georgia, Dr. Tam O'Shaughnessy

Tam O'Shaughnessy is an accomplished children's science writer and co-founder of Sally Ride Science, a nonprofit science education organization. She and her partner, astronaut Sally Ride, established this organization in 2001 to encourage girls to pursue STEM studies and careers and address the underrepresentation of women in these fields. O’Shaughnessy holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Georgia State University and a PhD in school psychology from the University of California, Riverside, and she is a longtime college professor.

O’Shaugnessy (left) is pictured here with Ride (right). 

Image credit: Karen Hom/Sally Ride Science

Guam, Juliana Flores Baza

Juliana Flores Baza is a Chamorro-born mechanical engineer and advocate from Guam. She worked as an intern at NASA as an undergraduate student with an interest in aviation and mechanical engineering, and she was also a product engineer for Nike shoes. She currently continues to engineer at Guam Power Authority. Baza remains politically involved with issues in and concerning Guam, and she advocates for underrepresented groups in STEM and reproductive rights.

Image credit: Juliana Flores Baza

Hawaii, Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott

Isabella Abbott was a biologist and botanist who discovered and named more than 200 species of Hawaiian marine algae, or limu. This earned her the title "First Lady of Limu." When Abbot earned her PhD in botany from the University of California, Berkeley, she became the first known Native Hawaiian person to receive a doctoral degree. A lifelong researcher and educator, Abbott taught at Stanford University and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. 

Image credit: Chuck Painter/Stanford News Service

Idaho, Professor Shannon Kobs Nawotniak

Shannon Kobs Nawotniak is an associate professor in the geosciences department at Idaho State University, where she specializes in volcanology. Nawotniak studies volcanoes on Earth to better understand volcanoes on other planets. She has worked on numerous NASA missions, and, as a member of the JETT 3 Team, she will help train Artemis astronauts in conducting geology experiments on the Moon. 

Image credit: Idaho State University via Shannon Kobs Nawotniak

Illinois, Dr. Leona Woods Marshall Libby

A physicist from La Grange, Illinois, Leona Woods Marshall Libby made huge contributions to the Manhattan Project and continued on as a research physicist doing work on nuclear research, engineering, and environmental and climate science. Libby graduated high school at 14, got her bachelor’s degree at 19, and continued on to get her PhD before creating ‘the boron trifluoride counter’ which detected neutron activity and was used in the nuclear fission experiment that ultimately led to the creation of the first nuclear weapon. 

Image credit: Argonne National Laboratory

Indiana, Dr. Melba Phillips

Melba Phillips, born in 1907 in Hazleton, Indiana, was a physicist, educator, and gender equity advocate. She worked closely with J. Robert Oppenheimer on quantum and nuclear physics, taught at colleges, and co-authored two textbooks while winning many awards and honors. Phillips constantly advocated for women in STEM throughout her life and was an outspoken scientist for preventing nuclear warfare after World War II. During the Cold War, she refused to cooperate with the McCarran Committee (the Senate equivalent to the House Un-American Activities Committee) and was subsequently fired from her teaching job for not publicly testifying against scientists around her. 

Image credit: Esther Mintz, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Esther Mintz Collection

Iowa, Dr. Peggy A. Whitson

Peggy Whitson is an American astronaut and biochemist born and raised near Beaconsfield, Iowa. She has spent more days in space than any other American (665 days), was the first woman to command the International Space Station (twice), and was the first female Chief Astronaut at NASA. She has spent an outstanding total of 60 hours and 21 minutes on spacewalks. With numerous other awards and honors, she was also in TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018. Since retiring from NASA, Whitson has worked as a Director of Human Spaceflight at Axiom. She commanded the Axiom-2 mission to the International Space Station in 2023. 

Image credit: NASA

Kansas, Dr. Marina Suarez

Marina Suarez is an associate professor of geology at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Through studying the rock record, Suarez works to understand past climates. As a grad student in 2010, she and her sister Celina Suarez (also a geologist) discovered a new species of dinosaur. Geminiraptor suarezarum was named for them both. 

Image credit: Marina Suarez

Kentucky, Dr. Mary Eugenia Wharton 

Mary Wharton was a botanist, environmental activist, and published author from Jessamine County, Kentucky. She worked as a professor at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, for almost 30 years, collected many plant species, and created field guides for native plants in Kentucky among other publications. She is also known for her conservation efforts. She won many battles with land developers in her region, created conservation land, and, in 1987, started a non-profit to maintain that land. (Fun fact: Wharton discovered a new kind of berry in 1942, which is called Rubus Whartoniae in her honor.)

Image credit: Floracliff Nature Sanctuary (floracliff.org)

Louisiana, Hayley Arcenaux

Born and raised in St. Francesville, Louisiana, Hayley Arcenaux started her career as a physician’s assistant at St. Jude, inspired by her own experience as a childhood cancer survivor. In 2021, she was the chief medical officer for the Inspiration4 mission, a privately-funded 4 day orbital spaceflight in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. On the mission, Arceneaux became the first person with a prosthetic limb to travel in space.

Image credit: Flickr/Inspiration4 Crew

Maine, Dr. Jessica Meir 

Born and raised in Caribou, Maine, astronaut Jessica Meir has spent over 200 days in space. While she was aboard the International Space Station in 2019, she completed the first all-woman spacewalk with Christina Koch (learn more about Koch in the Michigan section of this map). Meir has a master’s degree in space studies and a PhD in marine biology. As a graduate student, she studied the physiology of marine mammals and birds. In addition to her missions in space, Meir served as a crew member on the European Space Agency CAVES space analog mission, which took place underground in Italian caves.

Image credit: NASA

Maryland, Dr. Emily Riehl

Emily Riehl is a mathematician currently teaching at Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a prolific author of publications that focus primarily on category and homotopy theories. Riehl also plays several instruments and has played on the United States national Australian rules football team. She is one of the co-founders of Spectra, an association for LGBTQIA+ mathematicians.  

Image credit: Marshall Clarke

Massachusetts, Women Astronomical Computers

The approximately 200 mathematicians and astronomers known as the Women Astronomical Computers worked to painstakingly classify stars and map the universe with telescope data and images in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of the most recognized astronomers from this group were Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Williamina Fleming. Leavitt’s work paved the way for astronomers to measure distances in the universe.

Image credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Michigan, Christina Koch

Christina Koch is a NASA astronaut and flight engineer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who has spent 328 days in space — setting the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman. While she was aboard the International Space Station in 2019, she completed the first all-woman spacewalk with Jessica Meir (learn more about Meir in the Maine section of this map). Koch has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, and, prior to becoming an astronaut, she worked in space science instrument development and remote scientific field engineering and was a research associate in the United States Antarctic Program. In 2023, Koch was named to the crew of Artemis II, setting her up to become the first woman to visit the vicinity of the Moon. 

Image credit: NASA

Minnesota, Dr. Sarah Lacher

Sarah Lacher has a PhD in toxicology and is an assistant professor in the department of biomedical sciences at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Duluth. Most of her research focuses on gene expression and the mechanisms that turn genes “on” or “off.” She is also a member of the Cellular Mechanisms of Cancer Program at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center. She is a member of 500 Queer Scientists, a visibility campaign for LGTBQ+ people with the goal of ensuring the next STEM generation of LGBTQ+ role models and helping the current generation recognize that they are not alone.

Image credit: University of Minnesota

Mississippi, Sharon Caples McDougle

Sharon Caples McDougle was born and raised in Moss Point, Mississippi. She joined the US Air Force in 1982, where she specialized in working with pressure suits for the SR-71 and U-2 missions. She fitted suits for individual pilots and suited them up for training flights and missions. In 1990 she transferred her skills to NASA where she was the first Black woman to serve as a spacesuit technician, crew chief, and manager of the Space Shuttle Crew Escape Equipment Processing department. She suited up Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman astronaut, and led the first all-women team of spacesuit technicians in support of Space Shuttle mission STS-78. McDougle enjoys speaking about her career with young people and is author of a children’s book Suit Up for Launch with Shay. 

Image credit: NASA

Missouri, Dr. Mildred Cohn

Scientist Mildred Cohn advanced knowledge of how cells use energy through her trailblazing work. Using then-cutting-edge nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to zoom in on the molecules, she discovered new information about the structure and chemical reactions of ATP, the compound that cells use for energy. Some of Cohn’s most prominent research was done at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she became an associate professor in 1958. Cohn later taught at the University of Pennsylvania as a full professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics from 1960-1982.

Image credit: University of Pennsylvania Archives

Montana, Rose Bear Don’t Walk

Rose Bear Don’t Walk (Séliš/Apsaálooke) is an ethnobotanist from the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. She studies native plants and traditional food, looking specifically at community health, environmental ties, and culture in the Salish community. She works to incorporate indigenous knowledge and western ideas of science together in her “Recovering our Roots” project. She also hosts the popular science education YouTube channel SciShow and was a recipient of the "Fellowship for the Future,'' awarded by the 500 Women Scientists organization to promote projects by women of color for equality and social justice in science. 

Image credit: Finley Photography

Nebraska, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte

Susan La Flesche Picotte was an accomplished doctor from the Omaha Reservation. She graduated top of her class at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1889, becoming the first Native American woman in the U.S. to hold a medical degree. She ran a private medical practice and later opened a hospital that would serve patients of any background near the Omaha Reservation, all while lobbying for prohibition on the Reservation in Washington, D.C.

Image credit: Photo Lot 24 SPC Plains Omaha BAE 4558 Family Photos 00691200, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Nevada, Dr. Margaret Lyneis

Margaret Lyneis was an archeologist and professor that helped with the Tule Springs Fossil Beds “Big Dig” expedition to study human interactions with Late Pleistocene animals. She was one of very few women working at this dig with other paleontologists, geologists, and archeologists. Lyneis is best known for her work researching the Virgin Branch Puebloan region and the “Lost City” of Nevada.

Image credit: University of Nevada, Las Vegas Photograph Collection, approximately 1900-2004. PH-00062. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada

New Hampshire, Christa McAuliffe

Educator Christa McAuliffe was a teacher at Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire, at the time she was selected to participate in NASA’s Teacher in Space Project in 1985. As part of this program, McAuliffe trained to teach, communicate, and conduct experiments from space as part of the STS-51-L mission. Tragically, McAuliffe and the six other crew members died when the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after lift-off on January 28, 1986. McAuliffe’s love for teaching and passion for space continue to inspire. Her memory lives on in the many schools named in her honor, including the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence at Framingham State University, her alma mater.

Image credit: NASA

New Jersey, Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan

Kathy Sullivan is an oceanographer, geologist, and astronaut with a PhD in geology. As a scientist and leader, she has performed multiple oceanographic expeditions on the bottom of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, served as a direct commission officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, commanded a group of oceanographers and meteorologists, crewed three space shuttle missions, and led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She was the first American woman to conduct a spacewalk and, in 2020, became the first woman to reach the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, seven miles below the ocean’s surface. Between her missions to space and the ocean floor, Sullivan is “the most vertical woman on Earth.”

Image credit: NASA

New Mexico, April Armijo

April Armijo is an Indigenous business advocate from Dennehotso, Arizona, and the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico working in technology and other digital fields. As a member of the Diné (Navajo) tribe, Armijo works hard to advocate for Indigenous communities. She is currently the director of digital media and communications of Advancing Indigenous People in STEM (AISES), a nonprofit organization that focuses on supporting Indigenous researchers and students in STEM.

Image credit: April Armijo

New York, Judith Love Cohen

Born into a Jewish-American family in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, Judith Love Cohen turned her early interest in mathematics into an aerospace career. While studying at Brooklyn College, she discovered her true passion—engineering. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree (1957) and master’s degree (1962) from the University of Southern California and, through her work with TRW, went on to design technologies used for Project Apollo and the Hubble Space Telescope. Her contributions to aerospace recently became more widely recognized thanks to a viral social media post that pointed out her connection with actor Jack Black — she was pregnant with him while working on the Apollo 13 Abort Guidance System (AGS) code that helped the crew return to Earth safely. 

Image credit: Look Magazine

North Carolina, Dr. Lydia Jennings

Lydia Jennings, a member of the Huichol (Wixáritari) and Pascua Yaqui (Yoeme) Nations is a Native American soil microbiologist and environmental scientist working to support Indigenous geoscientists and the expansion of Indigenous ways of knowing into modern scientific thought. One way she advocates for this cause is through her “Running with Purpose” project, through which she aims to run 50 miles on the Arizona Trail in honor of 50 Indigenous scientists. She has a PhD in soil microbiology and is currently a research fellow in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in North Carolina.

Image credit: Ashleigh Thompson

North Dakota, Dr. Phoebe Waterman Haas

Born in North Dakota in 1882, Phoebe Waterman Haas became one of the first American women to receive a doctorate in astronomy, which she earned at the University of California, Berkeley. She was also one of the first women to use the then-state-of-the-art Lick Telescope while studying at California’s historic Lick Observatory. Waterman Haas contributed both funds and astronomical observations to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), an organization founded in 1911 to collect and make available variable star observations. A teacher as well as a scientist, she shared her love of the sky with her sons, grandchildren, and students. The Public Observatory at the National Air & Space Museum is named in her honor.

Image credit: National Air and Space Museum/Diane Kidd

Ohio, Sunita Williams

Sunita Williams is an Indian-American astronaut, engineer, and U.S. Navy Officer born in Euclid, Ohio. She has flown in space two times, spending 322 days in space and 50 hours and 40 minutes outside the spacecraft on spacewalks. She is currently a member of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and is training for the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission aboard the CST-100 Starliner. (Fun fact: In April 2007, Williams became the first person to run a marathon in space, registering for the Boston Marathon and completing the distance on an International Space Station treadmill in four hours and 24 minutes.)

Image credit: NASA

Oklahoma, Mary Golda Ross

Trained in mathematics and astronomy, Mary Golda Ross (Cherokee) was an aerospace engineer and advocate for STEM education. She contributed to classified research at Lockheed’s Skunk Works (Advanced Development Projects), including the Agena rocket used in NASA’s Gemini human spaceflight program. Raised in Park Hill, Oklahoma, Ross studied mathematics at Northeastern State Teacher’s College. This tribal university upheld Cherokee values, which included equal educational opportunities for young women and men. Ross also completed a master’s degree in astronomy at Colorado State College of Education. In 1942, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation hired Ross as a mathematician. Her early projects included the P-38 airplane and, as the Space Age dawned, ballistic missiles. After her retirement from Lockheed in 1973, Ross dedicated herself to encouraging young women and Native students to pursue STEM careers. Long after her death, Ross remains a role model and inspiration to many.

Image credit: Northeastern State University Special Collections and Archives

Oregon, Dr. Dawn Wright

Dawn Wright is a professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State University. She has a PhD in physical geography and marine geology. Wright is currently the Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a geographic information system software, research, and development company. In 2022, she descended to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on the planet, to conduct research and map the seafloor, becoming the first Black person to do so.

Image credit: Dawn Wright/Esri 

Pennsylvania, Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, conservationist, and writer born in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Carson inspired many environmental movements with her book Silent Spring, which detailed the harmful impact of pesticides on both the natural world and society. She began her career as a marine biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one of only two female professionals at the agency.

Image credit: United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Puerto Rico, Dr. Mónica I. Feliú-Mójer

Mónica Feliú-Mójer is a scientist and science communicator from Puerto Rico who advocates for historically underserved communities by combining her passion for science communication  and doctorate in neurobiology to make science inclusive and equitable. In addition to making films, writing articles, delivering talks, and utilizing media to communicate about science, Feliú-Mójer is also the director of communications and science outreach for Ciencia Puerto Rico. In that role, she produces and co-hosts the only morning radio science segment in Puerto Rico, Jueves de Ciencia Boricua.

Image credit: Ramdwin González Otero

Rhode Island, Wendy Carlos

Born and raised in Rhode Island, musician, composer, and pioneer of electronic music Wendy Carlos was the first transgender woman to win a Grammy Award. That award-winning album, Switched On Bach, was performed on the Moog Synthesizer and sat at the intersection of art and technology. Before that, Carlos earned a dual degree in music and physics from Brown University, along with a master's degree in music composition from the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. She went on to score soundtracks for The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and the sci-fi classic TRON. 

Image credit: Kazuhisa Otsubo (via Wikimedia Commons)

South Carolina, Dr. Alma Levant Hayden

 Alma Levant Hayden was an American chemist that contributed to advancements in public health fields. A pioneer in her field, she was the first Black female chemist hired by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Through her work with spectrophotometry and chromatography, Hayden helped redefine the FDA’s drug review techniques. She also researched and exposed Kurebiozen as a fraudulent drug thought to combat cancer, even testifying against its proprietors and marketers in a criminal trial.

Image credit: NIH History Office

South Dakota, Sue Hendrickson

Sue Hendrickson is an explorer, deep sea diver, and fossil collector whose work has taken place both on land and under the sea. In 1990, Hendrickson made an incredible discovery in the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota: the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur to date. The dinosaur she discovered is now named ‘Sue’ and is on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. 

Image credit: Field Museum

Tennessee, Dr. Diana Sofia Acevedo

Cancer researcher Diana Sofia Acevedo was born in Bogotá, Colombia, but migrated to the United States to pursue her STEM education. She first learned English as a second language and then went on to earn her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. She has a PhD in pathology and laboratory medicine and is currently a postdoctoral research associate at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She works to find alternative treatment options for childhood cancer.

Image credit: Diana Sofia Acevedo

Texas, Dr. Darcie Little Badger

Darcie Little Badger, an earth scientist and author of Indigenous Futurism and speculative fiction, has a PhD in oceanography from Texas A&M University and has published research in both earth and ocean science. She's also the author of the 2020 critically acclaimed young adult fantasy novel Elatsoe. Like the main character of this book, Little Badger is a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and identifies as asexual.

Image credit: Bekah M. Photography 

Utah, Dr. Toshiko Toyota-Okutsu

Toshiko Toyota-Okutsu was a physician from Salt Lake City, Utah. Born in Nevada, she attended medical school in Philadelphia before setting up her practice in Salt Lake City. She has practiced in association with St. Marks Hospital for 42 years with a focus on obstetrics — the field of medicine addressing maternal health and pregnancy.

Image credit: MountainStar Healthcare ( https://mountainstar.com/specialties/emergency-care/?location=st-marks-hospital )

Vermont, Dr. Nettie Stevens

Dr. Nettie Stevens, born in Cavendish, Vermont, was a geneticist that discovered sex chromosomes in 1905 and was one of the first women in America to gain recognition for her work in STEM. She was top of her class at her university where she achieved a degree in half of the designated time before continuing on to get her doctorate in cytology. As a research fellow, Stevens investigated and published papers on topics within genetics, cytology, and embryology.

Image credit: Bryn Mawr College Special Collections

Virginia, The West Area Computers

The West Area Computers at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Langley, Virginia, are a group of Black female mathematicians who worked at the NACA (which later became NASA) from 1943-1953 and onward. Though their advanced work was essential for spaceflight advancements, calculations, and research, the group got little to no recognition or credit at the time. Sources working near the women commented on their skill: “The engineers admit themselves that the girl computers do their work more rapidly and accurately than they would.” Some of these women are highlighted in the popular movie Hidden Figures. Pictured here are Dorothy Vaughan, Lessie Hunter, and Vivian Adair (Margaret Ridenhour and Charlotte Craidon in back).

Image credit: NASA Langley Research Center

Washington, Dr. Kelly Ramirez

Kelly Ramirez is a current soil ecologist and outspoken activist for representation in STEM. She grew up in Washington, though her research has taken her around the world, and she now teaches at the University of Texas at El Paso. She co-founded the international 500 Women Scientists organization in 2016 to spotlight female experts in STEM fields in an effort to “make science open, inclusive, and accessible by fighting racism, patriarchy, and oppressive societal norms.”

Image credit: University of Texas at El Paso

West Virginia, Emily Calandrelli

Emily Calandrelli is a science communicator, speaker, writer, and engineer from West Virginia. She hosts and is an executive producer of both Xploration Outer Space and Emily's Wonder Lab, and she has been on Bill Nye Saves the World multiple times during her science communication career. She is active on TikTok and other social media sites to interpret and provide context on space, science, and current events in a way that is compelling and easy to understand. Calandrelli is also an active advocate for equality in STEM fields.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

Wisconsin, Dr. Autumn Kent

Dr. Autumn Kent is a mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin specializing in topology and geometry. She has a PhD in mathematics and has published various papers on geometry. She is also an advocate for transgender women in STEM like herself.

Image credit: Autumn Kent

Wyoming, Dr. Frances Rivera-Hernández 

Dr. Frances Rivera-Hernández is a planetary geologist focusing on planet climate, hydrology, and habitability. She currently teaches in the School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. After growing up in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, she earned her undergraduate degree in geology and astrophysics from the University of Wyoming. She also holds a master’s from the University of Washington and a doctorate from the University of California, Davis. Rivera-Hernández is passionate and active in many outreach projects involving underrepresented communities in STEM.

Image credit: Dr. Frances Rivera-Hernández