Katherine Stinson was born in Fort Payne, Alabama. While growing up, her inspiration was to study music in Europe, and at the age of 20, after riding a balloon, she figured that becoming a stunt pilot is the best way to earn money for her traveling. She started taking flying lessons, first with Tony Jannus, who allowed her to join him only as a passenger, and then with Max Lillie, one of the Wright brothers pilots. At first, he refused to teach her because of her gender, but after a trial lesson, and within four hours, she was flying alone. Later on, he taught her stunt flying lessons, and in the following year, the 21 years old Stinson became the fourth woman in the US to obtain a pilot certificate. Stinson began exhibition flying, abandoning her pianist inspiration and focusing on her new career. She moved with her family to San Antonio, Texas, where she and her mother opened an aviation school, the Stinson School, and she and her sister, Marjorie, taught children to fly. Stinson gained national recognition for performing exhibition flights across the US, and in 1915, she became the first woman and fourth pilot in the US to master the “loop to loop” stunt. Flying a plane she built herself, Stinson became known as a daredevil and was asked by men pilots to teach her stunts. In 1916, Stinson was the first woman to fly to China and Japan, where the people formed a Stinson fan club, referring to her as “Air Queen.” During that period, the US Post Office started an air-mail service, and Stinson became the first woman authorized as a mail pilot, flying the first air-mail route in Texas. At 26, Stinson set a non-stop distance record, flying 606 miles from San Diego to San Francisco in 9 hours and 10 minutes. When the US joined WW1 in 1917, the government declined her request to serve as a combat pilot. Refusing not to use her skill and contribute to the war effort, she performed exhibition flights for the American Red Cross, raising $2 million. After receiving a second denial, Stinson volunteered to the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in Paris, where she contracted tuberculosis that damaged her lungs and affected her ability to fly. She returned to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she met her future husband, a fellow airman called Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr. After retiring from flying at the age of 29, she became an architect. She passed away at the age of 86. Read more...

Jennifer Granholm was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. At the age of 4, she moved with her family to the US, settling in California. After graduating high school, she worked in various jobs, including as a tour guide at Universal Studios, in customer service at the Los Angeles Times, and at John B. Anderson’s presidential campaign. She studied Political Science and French at the University of California, Berkeley, then continued to a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard University, where she met her future husband, a fellow law student named Daniel Mulhern. After graduating with honors, she was active in the Michael Dukakis presidential campaign for the 1988 election while working as a clerk for Judge Damon Keith at the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Granholm started working as an attorney in the Wayne County executive office, where she prosecuted gang members, drug dealers, and child pornographers. At the age of 36, she was appointed to the Corporation Counsel for Wayne County – the youngest person to serve in this post. In 1998, she won a close and dirty race for Michigan Attorney General – the first woman in this position. In-office, she established Michigan’s first High Tech Crime Unit, sued RVP Development for the disruption of Lake Michigan, and enforced regulations on gasoline dealers in the state. In 2002, she entered the race as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Michigan. She won and became the first woman to serve as Governor of the state of Michigan. As Governor, Granholm pushed for education reform, promoting education for children from birth to age 5, advocating for post-secondary education, and leading the state to double its number of college graduates. Under her leadership, she led Michigan through the national crisis of 2008, channeling $2 billion to attract jobs and investing in clean energy, homeland security, and manufacturing sectors. During her eight years in office, the state of Michigan had attracted 4,000 companies and became the 2nd highest state in the country with child health care coverage. After leaving office in 2011, she began to teach law and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and became a senior research fellow at the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute. She founded the American Jobs Project at UC Berkeley, served as a senior advisor for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Clean Energy Program. She is a board member of the Dow Chemical Company and of The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. She is also a regular contributor to CNN, serving as a Managing Partner of RIDGE-LANE LP company and chairing the Priorities USA Action as well as the American Jobs Project.   Read more...