For the past several years Judy Singleton, a businesswoman and former editor of Indianapolis Woman magazine, has been researching the achievements of Hoosier women for a book she plans to publish in the future. More than 250 women who were the first to break a gender barrier in the state or across the country responded.

Verna S. Adams, Ed.D

1964 First African-American woman faculty member at St. Francis College in Ft. Wayne
1971 First African-American woman principal of a Ft. Wayne Community School (Smart Elementary School)

Cynthia Hurst Agsten

1973 First woman to work in production at the B.F. Goodrich Tire plant (now Uniroyal Goodrich) in Woodburn, IN
1973 First woman union member of United Rubber Workers of America Local 715 (now United Steel Workers)

Marjorie J. Albohm

1974 One of the first five women to become a National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) Certified Athletic Trainer
1974 First woman full-time athletic trainer at I.U. 1993 First woman inducted into the Indiana Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame

Beverly Harmon Archibald

1961 First girl to play Little League baseball in Indiana (Tri-County League, English, IN)

Vicky A. Bailey

1986 First African-American woman appointed to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission
1993 First African-American woman appointed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
2000 First woman president of PSI Energy Inc. (Indiana's largest electric supplier)

Judge Sarah Evans Barker

1972 First woman assistant U.S. attorney in Indiana
1984 First woman federal judge in Indiana
1994 First woman federal chief judge in Indiana (U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana)
1987 First woman member of the Indianapolis Downtown Kiwanis Club

Janet Seiwert Bell

1992 First woman judge advocate general (JAG) in the Indiana Air National Guard
1993 First woman colonel in the Indiana Air National Guard and first woman colonel in the U.S. Air National Guard JAG Corps

Marjorie Brink

1971 First woman elected from the ranks to the partnership of KPMG Peat Marwick, one of the "Big Six" public accounting firms

Nancy Ann Brown

1970 First woman and youngest treasurer of Bartholomew County
1980 First woman and youngest mayor of Columbus

Ruth Chin

1946 First woman staff photographer at the Muncie Star (now The Star Press)

Linda Silver Cohen

1973 First woman president of a Jewish congregation in Indiana (Temple Israel in Lafayette, where she was the 123rd president)

Anita L. DeFrantz

1986 First African-American woman and fifth woman elected to the International Olympic Committee (formed in 1894)
1997 First woman vice president of IOC

Priscilla E. Dillow

1988 First woman in Indiana nationally certified in Athletic Administration
1993 First woman president of the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association
1994 First woman board member of IHSAA
1997 First woman athletic director at Ben Davis High School (Indianapolis)

Gloria Scott Elliott

1979 First woman president of the Lawrence County Independent Insurance Agents Association
1983 First woman president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Indiana and second woman state president in the U.S.

Carolyn Madden Georgette

1979 First woman manager of an out-state business office for Indiana Bell (Evansville)
1984 Co-founder and first woman president of Evansville Center City Corporation
1989 First woman chairman of the Metropolitan Evansville Chamber of Commerce
1996 First woman president of Evansville Rotary Club

Mary Scifres Grabianowski

1971 First female president of the IU Student Association elected by the student body

Marilyn Poe Gross

1995 First women hired as a chaplain at Allied Holdings, Inc., a Decatur, GA, trucking firm

Ann Wagner Harper

1949 First woman to sing on television in Indiana (Circle B Ranch show on WFBM-TV in Indianapolis)
1951 First woman disc jockey in Indiana (make Music Mine program on WFBM)

Deborah L. Harrison

1982 First woman executive director of a Boys Club or a Boys & Girls Club in the Midwest (Boy's Club of South Bend)

Janet Gray Hayes

1974 First woman elected mayor of a major U.S. city over a half million people (San Jose, California)

Susie Campbell Hettmansperger

1989 First woman president of the Indiana Seed Trade Association

Donna J. Holmes

1981 First woman homicide detective on the Indianapolis Police Department

Saundra Haseman Huge

1968 First woman board member of the then-Farmers National Bank of Shelbyville
1993 First woman lt. governor in the Indiana District of Kiwanis International

Patricia R. Kirkpatrick

1959 First female allowed to take vocational agricultural at Southwestern High School in Lafayette, IN

Charlene K. Kruzick

1981 First woman road painter for the Indiana Highway Department (LaPorte District)

Martha Dampf Lamkin

1982 First woman Indiana area director of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
1992 First woman board chair of the Christian Theological Seminary (Indianapolis)
1996 First woman board chair Citizens Gas & Coke Utility, Inc. (Indianapolis)

Carolyn Dibble Metzger

1972 First woman practicing Certified Public Accountant in South Bend and first woman partner in a CPA firm in South Bend (Metzger & Company)

Jeanne Seidel Miller

1985 First woman chairman of the House of Delegates, Indiana State Bar Association
1988 First woman president of the Indiana Bar Association

Madge Rutherford Minton

1939 One of the first four women in the U.S. to graduate from the Advanced Civilian Pilot Training Program, a Civil Aeronautics Authority program offered in colleges to train pilots for WWII

Betty Rysdon Moebs

1973 First woman president of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis South District Board of Education and first woman member and president of the Indianapolis District Board of Education Coordinating Committee

Sheila Gibbons Mueller

1990 First woman full-time safety director for a general contractor in Indiana (Bowen Engineering, Indianapolis)

Glenda F. Norfleet

1991 First woman firefighter in Howard County (Kokomo Fire Department)
1999 First woman promoted to captain in the Kokomo Fire Department

Doris Jean Northenor

1980 First woman chairman of the Kosciusko County Republican Central Committee
1986 First woman member of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commission
1992 First woman elected by the merit employees to the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Merit Board

Dot Allwardt Nuechterlein

1984 First woman official scorekeeper on a regular basis in Men's Division I College Basketball (Valparaiso University)

Judy Asmus O'Bannon

1957 First woman to attend the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Judith G. Palmer

1980 First woman to receive the National Governor's Association Outstanding Service Award
1981 First woman state budget director of Indiana 1987 First woman vice president of IU
1995 First woman president of the Columbia Club (Indianapolis)

Sue Ellen Carnahan Parker

1996 First woman member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge 634 (Princeton, IN)
1997 First woman Exalted Ruler of a lodge in Indiana (October 1995 was the first year women could join the Elks)

Phyllis Ruble Pond

1981 First Republican woman to serve in a leadership position in the Indiana House of Representatives (assistant majority caucus chair)
1978-CURRENT Longest-serving woman in the Indiana State Legislature

Norma J. Putoff

1971 First woman U S contracting officer at Naval Avionics Facility Indianapolis
1974 First coordinator of the Federal Women's Program at NAFI

Barbara Hoffmann Quandt

1976 First woman account executive at WFMS radio
1994 First woman president of the Danville Rotary Club
1997 First woman chairman of the National Federation of Independent Business Indiana Leadership Council

Barbara Reeb-Murphy

1977 First woman in Fort Wayne to sell cars (Dave McIntire Ford)

Sallie Wilkens Rowland

1979 First woman president of the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission
1986 First woman on the executive committee of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce
1992 First woman to receive the Indianapolis Business Journal's Enterprise Award
1993 First woman president of the Economic Club of Indianapolis

Ruth Peacock Schumacher

1942 First woman to play oboe in a professional symphony orchestra in the United States (Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra)

Phyllis Craven Shafer

1982 First woman chair of the Ball State University Foundation
1987 First woman inducted with her husband in the Business School Hall of Fame
1990 First woman awarded the University President's Medal of Distinction

Judge V. Sue Blodgett Shields

1965 First woman general jurisdiction state trial court judge in Indiana (Hamilton County Superior Court)
1978 First woman judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals
1994 First woman U.S. Magistrate Judge in Indiana

Vi Simpson

1998 First woman and 75th member of the Indiana State Budget Committee (formed in 1925)

Barb & Liz Skinner

1999 First women and first sisters inducted into the Butler University Athletic Hall of Fame

Alice DeVolder Slade

1976 First woman president of the South Bend Press Club

Dorothy C. Stratton, Ph.D.

1933 First full-time dean of women at Purdue University
1942 First member and first director of the U.S. Coast Guard SPARs (the WWII women's unit)
1946 First personnel director of the International Monetary Fund

DeeDee Strum

1979 First executive director of the Indiana State Housing Board

Angee D. Walberry

1996 First woman to own and operate a winery in Indiana (Gaia Wines)

Nancy Moore Warren

2000 First woman commissioner of the Columbus Municipal Airport Board of Aviation

Melanie Wood

1998 First female to win the U.S. Mathematics Olympiad and to be on the U.S. Mathematical Olympiad Team for the International Math Olympiad