Dr Joycelyn Elders

Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the first person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology and the first African American and only the second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service.

Continue reading

Mitsu Yashima

Japanese-American artist, children’s book author, and civic activist who worked with the OSS (predecessor to the CIA)

Continue reading

Ruth Wilson

Ruth Wilson was hired by the NSA in 1918 as a Spanish linguist for the first peacetime cryptologic service MI-8 better known as the “American Black Chamber.”

Continue reading

Dr Jeannette E South-Paul

When Dr. Jeannette E. South-Paul was appointed chair of the University of Pittsburgh department of family medicine in 2001, she became the first woman and the first African American to serve as a permanent department chair at the university.

Continue reading

Vera Filby

Vera Ruth Filby served with the Women Accepted for Voluntary Exceptional Service (WAVES) and the Communications Supplementary Activity, the Navy’s cryptologic organization, during World War II.

Continue reading

Renetta Predmore-Lynch

In 1972, Renetta Predmore-Lynch learned she had been denied a promotion because of her gender and registered a complaint with NSA’s Equal Employment Opportunity office. It was determined that the promotion process violated its own evaluation rules, and excluded women from the promotion boards.

Continue reading

Cora Du Bois

Cora Du Bois became interested in anthropology while earning a M.A. in history from Columbia University. Cora then traveled to the American Southwest to pursue further research in anthropology—studying several Native American tribes in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. She later joined the OSS, the precursor to the modern CIA.

Continue reading