'AN EXTRAORDINARY CLASS"
Women's Hall of Fame announces 2026 inductees
A six-time Olympic medalist, Jackie Joyner-Kersee is one of track and field's most decorated athletes. Joyner-Kersee also won four world championships.
HISTORY
The National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls this week announced its 2026 class of inductees.
According to a news release, the group will be formally honored at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester on Sept. 24.
"We are thrilled to welcome an extraordinary class of inductees — women who have transformed science, civil rights, the arts, education, philanthropy, and beyond," hall of fame CEO and Executive Director Dr. Kristen Oehlrich said in a statement. "Among them are names many people recognize and others whose stories deserve to be widely known. Each represents a legacy that continues to shape the world today. Sharing their stories ensures their impact is seen, valued, and preserved."
Contemporary honorees
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee: A six-time Olympic medalist and world-record holder in the heptathlon, she continues to support youth and community development through philanthropic work in East St. Louis, Illinois.
• Adele Smith Simmons: Served as the third president of Hampshire College and later as president of the MacArthur Foundation, overseeing more than $1 billion in global initiatives focused on human rights, sustainability and community development.
• S. Mona Sinha: As a globally recognized advocate for gender equality, she has mobilized more than $1 billion to advance legal reforms and leadership opportunities for women and girls worldwide.
• Judith Viorst: Acclaimed author, poet and journalist whose work spans adult and children's literature, Viorst is best known for the beloved children's classic "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" and the psychology bestseller "Necessary Losses."
• Janet Yellen: An economist and policymaker who has served as U.S. secretary of the treasury, chair of the Federal Reserve and chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Historical inductees
• Edith S. Green: A 10-term U.S. Representative from Oregon and influential architect of federal education policy, Green helped pass landmark legislation including the National Defense Education Act, the Higher Education Act, and Title I.
• Virginia Hall Goillot: A World War II spy who organized resistance networks across Nazi-occupied France for Britain's Special Operations Executive and later the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.
• Harriet Jacobs: An escaped enslaved woman and author of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," one of the most important firsthand accounts of American slavery, Jacobs later became an abolitionist and humanitarian.
• Georgeanna Emory Seegar Jones, M.D.: A reproductive endocrinologist whose work transformed infertility diagnosis and treatment, she cofounded the first successful in vitro fertilization program in the United States.
• Audre Lorde: An influential poet, essayist, and activist whose work confronted racism, sexism, and homophobia while exploring Black female identity.
• Marie Tharp: A geologist and oceanographic cartographer who created the first scientific maps of the ocean floor and provided key evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics.
