Game Changers

Florence Merriam Bailey 1886

Nature writer and ornithologist Florence Merriam Bailey 1886 is credited with writing that inspired the study of birds in their natural habitats, as opposed to indoor settings. At Smith, she studied ornithology and co-founded a chapter of the Audubon Society, hoping to educate her classmates and convince them not to wear hats decorated with bird feathers. She wrote for Audubon Magazine and published what is considered to be the first field guide for identifying birds, Birds Through an Opera Glass. She also wrote Birds of New Mexico at the request of the U.S. Biological Survey. Bailey, who taught birdwatching classes at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., was one of the first women to be accepted as a member of the American Ornithological Union. She received the union’s prestigious Brewster Medal in recognition of her exceptional work in the field.

Florence Rena Sabin 1893

The first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her trailblazing career as a research scientist, Florence Sabin, Smith class of 1893, was the daughter of a schoolteacher and a mining engineer. Born in Colorado and raised in Vermont, she attended Vermont Academy, Smith College, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. One of only 14 women in her class at the medical college, she later became its first female full professor. Sabin’s research on blood vessels, the histology of the brain, and the pathology of tuberculosis led to her election in 1925 to the National Academy of Sciences—the first woman to gain membership to that body. In her later years, she was a leading public health advocate, helping to pass “The Sabin Laws” in Colorado, which provided more hospital beds to treat tuberculosis. Sabin was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. At Smith, The Florence Rena Sabin Papers are part of the college’s signature women’s history collection, and Sabin-Reed Hall is a central part of the college’s science center.

Angel DeCora 1896

Also known as Hinook-Mahiwi-Kalinaka (Fleecy Cloud Floating in Place), Angel DeCora was an acclaimed artist, designer, educator, and Native American rights activist. When she was a teenager, DeCora was forcibly removed from her home on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska. She then studied at prep schools in Virginia and Massachusetts before enrolling at Smith to study art. She became Smith’s first known Native American graduate in 1896, and continued her studies at Drexel Institute (now University), where she was accepted into renowned illustrator Howard Pyle’s extremely competitive summer art program. Her acclaimed art style combined Western techniques with traditional Native American styles, providing a lens into Native American culture for white Americans. While few of DeCora’s original works remain, her legacy as “the first real [Native American] artist” of her day remains intact.

Euphemia Lofton Haynes 1914

Euphemia Lofton Haynes was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics, which she received in 1943 from the Catholic University of America. A mathematics major at Smith, she went on to teach public school for close to 50 years. She also served as the first woman to chair the Washington, DC, board of education. During her tenure, she was an outspoken critic of the “track system” that put African American students on educational tracks that left them unprepared for college. Her work eventually led to a federal court case that ended the track system in DC public schools. After retiring from teaching in 1959, she went on to establish the mathematics department at the University of the District of Columbia. Throughout her life, Haynes received numerous honors. Pope John Paul XXIII awarded her with a Papal Decoration of Honor in 1959, and in 1998, she became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At Smith College, the former Wilder House is now known as Haynes House in her honor.

Eunice Carter 1921

Eunice Carter 1921 channeled her Smith training as a social worker and her commitment to social justice into a remarkable legal career. The first female African American graduate of Fordham University Law School, she also served as the first Black woman assistant district attorney for the state of New York. In that role, she was a key strategist for the successful 1936 prosecution of Charles “Lucky” Luciano, exposing his part in prostitution rackets that supported organized crime. In helping to bring about Luciano’s conviction, Carter drew on her experience as an assistant DA for the New York City Women’s Court, building trust with women who provided information about the inner workings of the city’s prostitution rings. Carter later served as a legal adviser to the United Nations and in 1957 was elected chair of the UN’s International Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations—the first woman to hold that position. Carter’s leadership at the UN helped expand global conversations about women’s rights, gender equality, and international cooperation.

Julia McWilliams Child ’34

A culinary icon, Julia McWilliams Child ’34 contributed to several cookbooks during her lifetime, including Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which in 2024 was named by The New York Times as one of the most influential cookbooks from the last century). As host of The French Chef, which premiered on public television in the 1960s and ran for 200-plus episodes, Child inspired Americans to try cooking French cuisine at home. Child also hosted Dinner at Julia’s, Baking With Julia, Julia Child and Company, and a host of other cooking shows. Her autobiography, My Life in France, inspired the 2009 film Julie & Julia. Before becoming a chef, Child served in the OSS (the precursor to the CIA), where she helped invent a wartime shark repellent. She received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 and was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2024.

Ann Baumgartner Carl ’39

In October 1944, Ann Baumgartner Carl ’39 became the first woman to fly a U.S. Army Air Forces jet plane. Initially inspired by a school visit from Amelia Earhart, Carl was an aviator through and through. As a child, she’d often accompany her father to Newark Airport in New Jersey to watch the planes come in at night. After studying pre-med at Smith, she joined the public relations department at Eastern Airlines and began flying lessons at a nearby airport. Later, she joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) class of 1943 and was stationed at Camp Davis in North Carolina as a tow pilot. Multiple assignments followed, including stints as a test pilot. Then in March of 1944, she was assigned to the fighter test division at Wright Field in Ohio. Seven months later, she was in the cockpit of America’s first jet aircraft, the Bell YP-59A, making history. Later in life, Carl taught flight instruction for United Airlines and also became a respected science journalist.

Madeleine L’Engle ’41

A storyteller from a young age, Madeleine L’Engle ’41 wrote her first story at age five and began journaling at age eight. She spent much of her life writing, eventually publishing two novels—Ilsa and the semi-autobiographical The Small Rain—and in 1941 graduated cum laude from Smith. After struggling to find continued success as an author, L’Engle planned to abandon writing by her 40th birthday in 1958. A year later, the idea for her most famous novel, A Wrinkle in Time, came during a 10-week cross-country camping trip with her family. She completed the novel in 1960 and after more than 30 rejections, it was published in 1962. L’Engle went on to write dozens of books for both children and adults. Among many other awards and accolades, she was named a Smith College Medalist in 1981 and was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame in 2011.

Cornelia Oberlander ’44

Cornelia Oberlander ’44 once described her fellow landscape architects as “a combination of artists, designers, choreographers, and scientists.” An art major at Smith and one of the first women to study at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Oberlander—who died of COVID in 2021—was renowned for her naturalistic designs. From beloved public spaces in her adopted city of Vancouver, Canada, to Smith’s landscape master plan in the mid-1990s, her work elevates the idea that, in her words, “people want to be surrounded by nature—it is in our genes.” The daughter of a German Jewish engineer and a horticulturalist and children’s book author, Oberlander fled with her family to England in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution. Inspired by her Smith classes in landscape design, she was determined that the college be among the first liberal arts institutions to train students in that field. Oberlander was also always ready with suggestions aimed at improving the campus landscape, according to a profile in the Smith Quarterly. Among them: “Reduce the number of lawns. Rethink the value of the pond. Show more respect for green space. Allow fewer vehicles on campus. Promote Smith as a leader in campus sustainability.”

Meroë Morse ’45

The first instant camera wouldn’t have come into focus without the work of Meroë Morse ’45. After studying extensively under Renaissance history professor Clarence Kennedy and graduating from Smith with a degree in art history, Morse landed a job at Polaroid, where she worked on the team that developed the Polaroid SX-70. Over the course of her time at Polaroid, Morse became a leader in the world of black-and-white photographic research. She began her career as a laboratory supervisor for photographic materials before eventually holding roles including the manager of black-and-white photographic research, the director of special photographic research, and an adviser to Polaroid founder Edwin Land. In addition to her work in developing and perfecting instant photography, Morse created Polaroid’s Artist Support Program, which provided film and equipment to innovative artists who pushed the boundaries of photography. A year after being awarded the Smith College Medal in 1968, Morse became the first woman elected as a fellow of the Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers.

Sylvia Plath ’55

Sylvia Plath has had an indelible impact on confessional poetry and the written word. Her contributions include poetry collections The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel, as well as the semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. At eight years old, she had her first poem published in the children’s section of the Boston Herald and went on to have her first national publication in The Christian Science Monitor in 1950. Plath battled clinical depression for most of her adult life. While studying at Smith, she took a six-month leave of absence to receive psychiatric care before returning to complete her degree and graduate summa cum laude. She also earned the Glascock Poetry Prize in 1955 before being awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study at Newnham College in Cambridge, England. Plath took her own life in 1963. After the publication of The Collected Poems in 1982, Plath was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, making her the fourth to posthumously receive the honor.

Gloria Steinem ’56

Cofounder of Ms. magazine and author of the bestseller Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, along with several other books, Gloria Steinem ’56 is a high-profile activist and feminist icon who has helped organize and launch some of the most important women’s groups of the past century, including the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Women’s Action Alliance, the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the Women’s Media Center. A well-respected journalist who has been published in Esquire and The New York Times Magazine, Steinem famously went undercover for New York magazine as a Playboy bunny in the 1960s and wrote an exposé (called “A Bunny’s Tale”) about her eye-opening experience. Steinem has earned numerous accolades during her lifetime, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 and a place in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1993.

Ng’endo Mwangi ’61

Renowned as Kenya’s first female physician, Ng’endo Mwangi ’61 has been a role model for generations of Smith students. The college’s Mwangi Cultural Center, which has long been a hub for campus activism and community building, is named in her honor. Dr. Mwangi, who grew up in colonial Kenya, attended Smith, where she majored in biological sciences, on an African Airlift scholarship program launched with the support of then Senator John F. Kennedy. After earning her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, she returned to Kenya, where she founded a rural health clinic serving 30,000 local Maasai tribespeople. Wambui Mwangi ’90 was still a young girl in 1973 when Smith named its Afro-American Cultural Center in honor of her mother. The younger Mwangi—a scholar and educator who was the first president of Smith’s African Students Association—recalls spending hours in the center organizing anti-racism activities on campus. At the time of Ng’endo Mwangi’s passing in 1989, students summed up her legacy this way: “We, the Smith students of today, owe Mwangi a great debt for being one of the vanguard of women who broke down racial and gender barriers, thereby making our progress a little easier.”

Jane Lakes Harman ’66

A Democrat from California, Jane Lakes Harman ’66 is a nine-term member of Congress and the first Smith alum to be elected to Congress. During her time in office, she became an internationally recognized authority on U.S. and international security, foreign relations and policymaking, and was the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee (2002–2006) and chaired the Homeland Security Committee’s Intelligence Subcommittee (2007–2011). Prior to taking office, she held several positions within the government, including deputy secretary to the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter. Harman resigned from Congress in 2011 to lead the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as its first female president and CEO. She stepped down in 2021 and is currently a distinguished fellow and president emerita there. A Smith Medalist, she is the author of Insanity Defense: Why Our Failure to Confront Hard National Security Problems Makes Us Less Safe (2021).

Laura D’Andrea Tyson ’69

Under President Bill Clinton, economics and public policy scholar Laura D'Andrea Tyson ’69 served as cabinet member (1993–1996), chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1993–1995), and director of the White House National Economic Council (1995–1996)—the first woman to serve in these positions. She later became a member of President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Tyson was the first female named dean of London Business School (1998–2001) and then interim dean at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business (2002–2006), where she is currently a distinguished professor of the Graduate School at Berkeley-Haas. Tyson has done considerable policy research on the links between women’s rights and national economic performance and is a co-author of the World Economic Forum Annual Global Gender Gap Report, which ranks each nation on economic, political, education, and health gender gaps.

Rochelle (Shelly) Braff Lazarus ’69

The former worldwide CEO and chair of renowned ad agency Ogilvy (formerly Ogilvy & Mather), marketing legend Rochelle (Shelly) Braff Lazarus ’69 has been described as one of the most powerful executives in advertising. After graduating from Smith, she earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University in 1970—one of four women in her class of 300. Lazarus was a big proponent of brand building, which she successfully accomplished with numerous clients including IBM, Ford, American Express, and Unilever. Her numerous accolades include being the first woman to receive Columbia Business School’s Distinguished Leader in Business Award and the Advertising Educational Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She has often appeared on Fortune magazine’s annual list of “America’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business.” Her Smith connections run deep. The Lazarus Center for Career Development is named in her honor. She is also a Smith Medalist and former chair of the Smith College Board of Trustees.

Catharine MacKinnon ’69

Feminist legal scholar, writer, and activist Catharine MacKinnon ’69 broke new ground when she established in the late 1970s a legitimate legal basis for sexual harassment claims. She also worked with feminist Andrea Dworkin to create ordinances recognizing pornography as a civil rights violation and the Swedish model (Equality Model) for abolishing prostitution by putting criminal penalties on the purchaser. In the late 1990s, she successfully filed suit on behalf of Bosnian women survivors of Serbian genocidal sexual atrocities against Radovan Karadzic, former president of the Republika Srpska, and received $745 million in damages. This was the first time rape was legally acknowledged as an act of genocide. MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at University of Michigan Law School and the long-term James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Her most recent book is Butterfly Politics: Changing the World for Women (2019).

Erin O’Shea ’88

Biologist Erin O’Shea ’88 is a champion of what she describes as “high-risk, high-reward science that can change the future.” As the first female president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she has worked to expand diversity in the sciences and support groundbreaking medical research and education. For her own research contributions to cell and molecular biology, she received a National Academy of Sciences Award in 2001. O’Shea—who earned her Smith degree in biochemistry, and completed a doctorate in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in less than three years—taught at Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco. She became an HHMI investigator in 2000, where, among other research projects, she helped catalogue the location and amount of 75% of the proteins in the yeast genome. A member of the NAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, O’Shea was named president of HHMI in 2016.

Deborah Archer ’93

In 2021, Deborah Archer made history as the first Black woman to be named president of the American Civil Liberties Union. A renowned civil rights lawyer, teacher, and scholar, Archer was the first in her family to attend college. She chose Smith at the urging of a family friend who had graduated from Smith and told Archer that it was a “magical” place. When she received the Smith College Medal at Rally Day in 2022, Archer said, “I would not be the person I am without Smith. I came knowing that the world needed to change. But it was at Smith that I came to believe that I could change it.” Early in her career, she was a lawyer at the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where she took on cases related to voting rights, employment discrimination, and school segregation. In addition to her position with the ACLU, Archer serves as associate dean of experiential education and clinical programs and co-faculty director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at New York University School of Law. She is also a member of Smith College’s board of trustees.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy ’02

A two-time Oscar winner for the short subject documentaries Saving Face (2012, as codirector) and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015, as director), Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy ’02 is the first Pakistani ever to receive an Academy Award. Considered one of the most interesting and compelling storytellers in the film industry, Obaid-Chinoy directed episodes of the miniseries Ms. Marvel (2022) and is developing a new Star Wars film, which will follow the events of The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and center on the Rey character. Most recently, she directed the film Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, which tells the story of the fashion designer credited with inventing the wrap dress. Obaid-Chinoy worked as a reporter for her local English-language newspaper in Pakistan as a teenager, and after graduating from Smith she set her sights on becoming the influential visual storyteller that she is today.

Shaharzad Akbar ’09

Shaharzad Akbar ’09 is an internationally recognized human rights activist. Currently in exile from her home in Afghanistan, Akbar has been an outspoken advocate for marginalized communities around the world. She was the first Afghan woman to complete postgraduate studies at Oxford University. Then, she founded Afghanistan 1400 to promote freedom of expression, gender equality, and voting rights. That work gave Akbar a national voice that she used as a deputy on the National Security Council for Peace and Civilian Protection, as a senior adviser to former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, and as chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. She has used her own story to inspire fellow Afghans to envision a democratic Afghanistan free from tyranny. “I want to change the destiny of my country,” she has said. An anthropology major, Akbar says that Smith was the “first place outside of my family where I felt fully recognized, appreciated, and supported. I thrived at Smith.”

Elim Chan ’09

Renowned conductor Elim Chan ’09 was the first female to win the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, enabling her to spend the 2015–16 season as assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, where she worked closely with Valery Gergiev before becoming a Dudamel Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Chan has since served as principal guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra from 2018–2023 and principal conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra from 2019–24, while maintaining a demanding schedule of guest conductor appearances with top orchestras around the world. Recent engagements include collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Orchestre de Paris. Chan is also working with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in a three-year collaboration (2023–26) focusing on the ballets of Stravinsky.