Raising Awareness about the National Women’s Hall of Fame

When Russell Kahn learned that his college friend Jennifer Gabriel had accepted a job as executive director of the National Women’s Hall of Fame, he had an idea. Kahn (’98), chief content and education officer of News-O-Matic, a daily news platform for kids used in schools around the US, reached out to his former Daily Free Press colleague, and suggested that News-O-Matic partner with the Hall of Fame to highlight the stories of women who have made exceptional contributions to society throughout American history. Gabriel (’98) agreed.

During Women’s History Month in March 2022, Kahn published a nine-part series highlighting the 2021 inductees to the Hall of Fame, which included science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler; former First Lady Michelle Obama; artist Judy Chicago; poet Joy Harjo; soccer player Mia Hamm; former US Army officer Becky Halstead; women’s and education rights activist Emily Howland; NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson; and former CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi. “It was wonderful that students could learn about incredible women from all different areas of focus,” Kahn says.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame, which aims to honor the achievements of American women in American history, is fittingly based in Seneca Falls, N.Y., where the Seneca Falls Convention—the first women’s rights convention in the US—was held in 1848. In September 2022, Kahn traveled to Seneca Falls to meet up with Gabriel and attend the annual induction ceremony. “That reaffirmed my desire to continue to tell those stories. But I didn’t just want to write an article about them,” Kahn says. “Jen and I kept brainstorming. We wanted to bring kids into the process.”

Gabriel, now the Hall of Fame’s CEO, proposed finding a way to bring students to a future induction ceremony. The answer: a contest. 

Who Inspires You?

In March 2023, Gabriel and Kahn launched an essay contest through News-O-Matic that asked students ages 14 and younger to respond to the question: Which National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee inspires you?

“This is another way that the Hall can deliver its mission in a very age-appropriate way, introducing young people to the exceptional stories of women, many of whose names they would never otherwise hear about, and challenge them to think about what sparks their interest from these stories and how they can translate that to do something amazing with their lives,” says Gabriel. 

They received around 100 entries and had a judging committee that included inductees Nooyi and Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially enter the Boston Marathon. “We wanted to also use this as an opportunity to engage our inductees and give them that experience of reading about how kids talk about their legacies,” says Gabriel. “Even if it’s not specifically about them, it’s about another woman who has been honored in the Hall.” 

The winning essay, written by a fifth grader from Bohemia, N.Y., was about Florence Wald, a former dean of the Yale School of Nursing and a pioneer in the hospice field.

Learning what makes a good story, and how to write about it well. Those are skills that can benefit you in probably any profession out there.

Jennifer Gabriel

“The essay talked about the hospice experience, about death and dying and grieving, and that’s something that all of us can relate to. There was a universal sort of feeling among the committee that this was the one that we wanted to lift up,” says Gabriel.

“I notified the student who won the contest, along with her teacher and parents, and it was just really beautiful,” says Kahn. “It’s going to be really neat to integrate her and her story into the Women’s Hall of Fame and help more and more kids be inspired.”

The winning student now gets the opportunity to attend the induction ceremony for the 2023 inductees and read their essay on stage. That ceremony, originally scheduled for September 2023, will take place in March 2024 so that, for the first time, it can be broadcast nationally by a television partner that will be announced soon.

Joining Forces

More than 300 women have been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame since its founding in 1968, including Susan B. Anthony (1973), Maya Angelou (1998), and Jane Fonda (2019). The 2023 inductees are ophthalmologist Patricia Bath, who invented a new technique for removing cataracts; Elouise Cobell, an advocate for Native American rights; Kimberlé Crenshaw, a leading scholar of critical race theory; Peggy McIntosh, an antiracism activist; Loretta Ross, an advocate for reproductive justice; Judith Plaskow, the first Jewish feminist theologian; Sandy Stone, who pioneered transgender studies; and Anna Wessels Williams, an immunologist who was instrumental in vaccine innovation.

“We happen to have a very strong social justice theme,” says Gabriel, although she is quick to clarify that the National Women’s Hall of Fame staff and board have no role in selecting who is inducted. All nominations come in from members of the public and then are selected by a panel of judges separate from the Hall’s staff and board. “It’s a completely public-driven and public-informed process. We have a national panel of judges of about 100 to 120 individuals who are leaders and executives in the fields that we honor.”

遗传算法

Both Gabriel and Kahn say they are thrilled to have come together more than 20 years after they became friends during a study abroad semester in Sydney, Australia. “It’s been an absolute joy and a real pleasure to be able to reconnect with Jen professionally after all these years,” says Kahn. “Both of us are working in the communication space in different ways and trying to do good work in our own spheres, but it’s been so fulfilling to join forces for this contest.”