PHOENIX — Gabby Giffords, former U.S. Representative from 2007-2012, will be one of nine inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame on Thursday.
The nine Arizona women — four legacy and five contemporary inductees — will join 154 others in the state Hall of Fame, which was first established in 1980.
A native of Tucson, Giffords served in the Arizona House of Representatives (2001-2003) and Arizona Senate (2003-2005) prior to being elected as a national representative.
She notably survived an assassination attempt in January 2011 while at a constituent event in her hometown. As a result of the head trauma she sustained, Giffords resigned during her third term in the U.S. House of Representatives but has since recovered a majority of her motor skills.
According to an Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame release, Giffords “personifies courage.”
Giffords, a longtime gun control advocate, has been married to current U.S. Senator Mark Kelly since 2007.
Time and site of Arizona Women’s HOF induction ceremony
Giffords and the rest of the class of 2025 will be honored at 3 p.m. on Thursday at the Arizona Heritage Center in Tempe, according the release.
There will be a reception following the ceremony.
Other Arizona Women’s HOF inductees joining Gabby Giffords
Legacy inductees
- Rosa Bruce (Casa Grande) – She garnered national attention for her housing model that helped low-income families get out of poverty.
- Lillian Piñon Carrillo (Globe) – She started the Brownie Girl Scouts and Girl Scouts of America chapters in Globe for Mexican-American girls and served the organizations for 30 years.
- Dora Klein Perry (Phoenix) – Her bronze sculptures were made famous by a Fiesta Bowl Football Trophy that was commissioned in 1981.
- Angela Ruíz Tewksbury (Globe) – She was the first Mexican American to be elected to the Globe Board of Education, which she served on from 1969 to 1982.
Contemporary inductees
- Socorro Hernandez-Bernasconi (Guadalupe) – In 1972, she helped end racial and ethnic discrimination within Tempe elementary schools’ special education programs with a civil action lawsuit.
- Myra Dinnerstein (Tucson) – She founded the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona in 1975.
- Josephine H. Pete (Phoenix) – She became the first female principal of South Mountain High School in 1985 and the first female deputy superintendent of the Phoenix Union High School District.
- Ofelia Zepeda (Tohono O’odham Nation) – She is a nationally-recognized poet and an “expert in cultural preservation” none better illustrated than her authoring the textbook “A Papago Grammar” in 1983.
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