Four women who made significant contributions to Georgia’s history will be inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement (GWA) Hall of Fame on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, 11:00 AM at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. The Georgia Women of Achievement Induction Ceremony is an annual free event held during Women’s History Month and is open to the public. This year’s event will be in Pierce Chapel on the Wesleyan Campus and will be followed by a reception and seated luncheon in the stately Anderson Dining Hall. The luncheon requires a reservation by March 6 and a ticket purchased here: www.georgiawomen.org.
Keynote speaker: Lauretta Hannon, author, commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, syndicated advice columnist
2020 Inductees:
Clarice Cross Bagwell (1914 - 2001) Trailblazer in Georgia education
Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin (1897 - 1988) Nationally recognized author and educator
Juanita Marsh (1926 – 2013) One of the first female judges in Georgia and founder of Anchor Hospital in College Park, GA
Jean Elizabeth Geiger Wright (1925 – 2019) Pioneer in land conservation and environmental education
The first GWA induction ceremony was held in 1992 and recognized Martha McChesney Berry, Lucy Craft Laney, Juliette Gordon Low, Sara Branham Matthews, and Flannery O’Connor. Since then, the new honorees have been inducted in celebration of Women’s History Month. Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter was a member of the GWA founding committee and said, more than 90 “women have been honored from fields such as the arts and humanities, business, education, government and politics, science, health, sports, journalism and more…The core mission of the organization has remained consistent: to honor the many influential women of Georgia, to uphold their legacies, to encourage others to follow their examples by using their own unique talents, and to educate Georgia’s youth about these outstanding role models.” More than half a dozen of the inductees have been Wesleyan College alumnae including Ella Gertrude Thomas, Class of 1851; Laura Askew Haygood, Class of 1864; Eliza Frances Andrews, honorary degree Class of 1882; Mary Dorothy Lyndon, Class of 1896; Louise Frederick Hays, Class of 1900; Viola Ross Napier, Class of 1901; Sara Branham Matthews, Class of 1907; Ellamae Ellis League, Class of 1920; and Hazel Raines, Class of 1936.