Dr. Melissa Gilliam
A pediatric gynecologist, she will become Boston University’s first female and Black president when she takes the helm in July.
They are leaders and entrepreneurs, activists and trailblazers in our communities. They are women who make a difference every day – in every state.
Introducing USA TODAY’s 2024 Women of the Year, 60 women across the country using their voices and determination to push for change and equality, and even joy.
They inspire us, influence us, and make us laugh. They include women such as director and actress Eva Longoria pushing for accurate portrayals of Latinos, and Nebraska’s Asheli Spivey improving the lives of Black moms. They are 17-year-old Eva Lighthiser of Montana challenging her state to consider how environmental change affects future generations. And they are Tennessee’s Melissa Alexander, Becky Bailey Hansen, Mary Joyce, and Sarah Shoop Neumann, four moms bound together after Nashville’s Covenant School shooting, working to make schools safer.
They are our neighbors and role models. They use their voices for others, many overcoming immense challenges, to make change happen. Simply put, they make us want to do better.
A pediatric gynecologist, she will become Boston University’s first female and Black president when she takes the helm in July.
The actress is now defying odds as a Latina filmmaker in Hollywood. Acclaimed for directing ‘Flamin’ Hot’, she is an advocate for Latino talent.
A top fashion model since the 1980s, she is bucking her youth-obsessed industry to champion aging gracefully, and encouraging others to do the same.
The six-time Olympic medalist in gymnastics, sexual abuse survivor and advocate for other victims, is now exploring who she is outside her sport.
The CEO of SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) is a trailblazer in tech, and one of two Black women leading a Fortune 500 company.
A lawyer and former journalist, she works to free over-sentenced individuals and advocates for criminal justice reform in her state.
Her debut novel, ‘Sivulliq: Ancestor,’ explores her Iñupiaq heritage. Her son’s autism diagnosis led her to a professional writing career.
She speaks out against Arizona’s fraudulent and predatory sobriety homes, work with victims, and calls on state and tribal officials to act.
As a member of the state legislature, the former teacher has pursued policies that bridge racial, economic and educational divides.
A pioneering seismologist, her work has significantly influenced our understanding of earthquakes.
A mental health first responder at Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, she helped establish one of the first co-response teams.
In 2023, she received the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northeast, becoming the first Indigenous woman honored by the James Beard Foundation.
A fixture in Delaware's business and non-profit sectors, she has been at the helm of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Delaware since 1999.
The mayor of Reno, Nev., and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is focused on addressing mental health issues in America’s cities.
She is founder and CEO of Impact100 Global, an organization that empowers women to engage in philanthropy and community activism around the world.
An Army veteran, end-of-life doula and educator, she founded In Their Honor to enhance the well-being of military and veteran communities.
She coordinated the rescue of tourists from Lahaina's wildfires and has been instrumental in her island's ongoing recovery.
As vice-chair at Idaho Organization of Resource Councils, she advocates for farmworkers and immigrants, pushing for policy changes.
After losing her son to an opioid overdose, she established a network aiding those battling addiction, homelessness, and hunger.
She is founder of Overdose Lifeline. Her work with communities and lawmakers has made it easier for individuals and families to help stop an overdose.
She is the first head coach of the University of Iowa's women's wrestling program, and a former American Olympic women's freestyle wrestler.
She leads Feed the Future, an international initiative managing a $75 million portfolio funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The lieutenant governor of Kentucky, she is the state’s highest elected teacher and a passionate advocate for public education.
She uses her platform in the community to spread the gospel of kindness and to empower others to follow her lead.
A police officer, she channels her own hardships growing up to help the homeless and others in crisis in her community.
As the adjutant general of Maryland since April 2023, she is the only Black woman leading a state military.
An economist, she led a successful campaign to ban plastic beverage bottles in municipalities by focusing on consumer behavior.
The CEO of Avalon Village, she is transforming blighted homes in Highland Park into community spaces.
Minnesota's lieutenant governor and a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, she is currently the country's highest ranking elected Native woman.
She is editor and publisher of the Deer Creek Pilot newspaper, and deputy director of the Sharkey County Emergency Management Agency.
She is chief justice of the first majority-female Missouri Supreme Court in state history.
She was one of 16 youth plaintiffs who won a lawsuit against the state that found young people have a constitutional right to a healthy environment.
She is the founder of I Be Black Girl (IBBG), a "space for affirming Black women and girls in all the different narratives within that identity."
A suicide survivor, public speaker and author, she uses her experiences to inform outreach to youth around mental health.
Once a client of Operation Blessing, an organization that helps individuals and families in need, she now serves as its executive director.
She has led Clean Ocean Action for 40 years, advocating for policies designed to cut pollution off the Jersey Shore and beyond.
A New Mexico native, she serves as chief justice of the state's Supreme Court.
A singer-songwriter and disability activist, she is the co-founder of Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities (RAMPD).
She serves as the co-director of BeLoved, a nonprofit working to help unhoused people in the community.
The former state commissioner of commerce and labor founded a human resources firm to help small businesses and elevate female workplace experiences.
After learning a screening could have caught her breast cancer earlier, she helped expand insurance coverage in Ohio. Now she wants to do more.
She is focused on criminal justice reform and lowering incarceration rates and racial disparities for people of color in state jails and prisons.
A family nurse practitioner and director of health services at Willamette University, she advocates disease prevention through lifestyle.
She has served on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court since 2007. Last year became the state's first female chief justice.
An Afro-Puerto Rican writer and activist, she founded Revista Étnica, the first publication in Puerto Rico dedicated to stories of Afro-Latinx people.
As operator of food business incubator Hope & Main, she has helped launch 500 food businesses; 40% are minority-owned and 60% women-owned.
A South Carolina state representative and breast cancer survivor, she works to improve the lives of women in her state.
She is the leading the state's push into quantum science and positioning it as a U.S. leader in cybersecurity.
After the shooting at Covenant School, their lobbying for gun law reform has made school safety a central political issue.
After experiencing severe complications 18 weeks into her pregnancy, she sued the state seeking clearer guidance for medical exceptions to abortions.
Her work with language immersion programs helps students from historically underrepresented groups go to college and become professionally bilingual.
After a devastating flood, she pivoted from promoting business and tourism in Montpelier to leading recovery efforts, helping to preserve livelihoods.
As a county attorney, she initiated cases against seven deputies for killing a Black patient while being admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
This 19-year-old founded Girls Ignited and The Power of 100 Girls to lay the groundwork to develop a generation of female changemakers.
The founder of the American Rosie Movement, she has interviewed dozens of the women who entered and ran the workforce during World War II.
The former anti-violence director for Diverse & Resilient in Appleton, she pushed for more justice for LGBTQ+ people living in northeast Wisconsin.
As executive director of the Wyoming Food Bank, she lives her core valueof helping the people of her native state.
This year’s honorees span across diverse fields, from science and technology to arts and activism, embodying the essence of progress and empowerment.
The national honorees in photographs.