#TodayIs International Women’s Day — and in case you missed it, March is Women’s History Month. And since Raleigh has no shortage of influential female figures, today we’re celebrating some of the local women who are making history right now.
Mary Higby Schweitzer | Paleontologist
Mary Higby Schweitzer is Research Curator of Paleontology at NC Natural Sciences Museum and a professor at NC State University. In 2004, she discovered blood cells + soft tissue remains in a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex leg at her NC State lab. This observation was the first of its kind — paleontologists hadn’t thought to look for this evidence prior, which opened up a door to new findings of the biology of dinosaurs and the birth of molecular paleontology.
Debra Austin | Dancer
Debra Austin changed the world of ballet as the first Black woman to dance for the New York Ballet in the 1970s. Debra made history a second time when she was asked to be a principal dancer for the Pennsylvania Ballet, making her the first Black woman to hold this position at a major American ballet company. She retired from dancing in 1990 and now lives in Raleigh where she serves as a Ballet Master at Carolina Ballet.
Hunter Schafer | LGBTQ+ activist and actress
Hunter Schafer is taking Hollywood by storm for her role as Jules in the HBO hit show Euphoria. She grew up in Raleigh — attending Broughton High School and then transferring to the NC School of the Arts in 2017. That same year, she made Teen Vogue’s “21 Under 21” list for her activism work against HB2. Hunter cites some of her personal development as a transgender woman to time spent at support groups with the LGBT Center of Raleigh.
Christina Koch | Astronaut
Christina Koch graduated from NC State with degrees in electrical engineering + physics. She spent over a decade preparing to become an astronaut and was chosen by NASA in 2013 to join Astronaut Group 21. Five years later, Koch was assigned to the International Space Station and was joined by Jessica Meir in 2019 for the historic, first all-female spacewalk. She also broke the record for the longest amount of time a woman has spent in a single spaceflight, logging 328 days.
Jaki Shelton Green | Poet + teacher
Jaki Shelton Green is North Carolina’s poet laureate — the first Black person + third woman to receive this honor. Jaki is a native of Orange County and has been in the literary field for 40+ years teaching and publishing writing. During her career, she has collected a multitude of honors — including induction into the NC Literary Hall of Fame — making her one of the most awarded writers in our state.
Want to learn more about Women’s History in NC? Visit the NC Museum of History’s online exhibit all month long.
Contributed by Xenna Smith
