-
Domestic violence, experimental theater, the corrections system, the environment, municipal government — you name it, Carol Reitan made it better. She was also the first female mayor of Normal.
-
As Bloomington mayor, Judy Markowitz led a successful campaign to add sexual orientation to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance in 2002.
-
The Bistro owner Jan Lancaster is one of WGLT's 21 Women Who Shaped Bloomington-Normal.
-
In the 1980s, when jail was about the only place many suffering mental illness were sent, Judy Buchanan worked with administrators at BroMenn Hospital in Normal to accept and treat those patients.
-
Children are supposed to have a childhood. In some ways Carla Barnes-Wheeler did not. Her father was absent. Her mother struggled with mental illness. Friend and Bloomington-Normal NAACP President Linda Foster said Barnes-Wheeler, the youngest of four children grew up in a poor area of Chicago Heights.
-
21 Women Who Shaped B-N: Tina Sipula touched thousands experiencing homelessness and food insecurityTina Sipula undeniably touched thousands in Bloomington-Normal who’ve experienced homelessness or food insecurity through her nearly 40 years at Clare House, and after it closed in 2015 through Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen.
-
District 87 school board president Elizabeth Fox Anvick wears many hats: She’s a tech professional, a wife, a mother – and one of Bloomington-Normal’s most visible LGBTQ+ advocates.
-
Maura Toro-Morn has made herself known in the academic world of Bloomington-Normal, catapulting the Latin American and Latino/a Studies program forward and connecting with students on an personal level.
-
March is Women’s History Month, and all this month WGLT is recognizing 21 women who shaped Bloomington-Normal. One will be featured every weekday. Follow along at WGLT.org/21Women.
-
Eva Jones was the first woman and person of color to make the District 87 school board. That was in 1971. Six years later, she became president and three years after that she was on the Bloomington City Council.