ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — This year’s class of inductees for the National Women’s Hall of Fame was announced Wednesday months ahead of the 31st induction ceremony.

Eight women will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year as the organization is gearing up for the ceremony at the Smith Opera House in Geneva.

The Hall of Fame has released a list of the class of inductees, as well as their various achievements:

• Patricia Era Bath (1942-2019): An ophthalmologist and inventor, Dr. Bath pioneered laser cataract surgery and became the first Black female physician to have a medical patient in 1986. She was the first female member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, the first Black person who was a resident in ophthalmology at NY University, and the first Black woman who served on staff as a surgeon at UCLA. Additionally, she was the first Black female physician to receive a patent for a medical purpose.
• Elouise Cobell (1945-2011): Cobell, a banker, advocate, and member of the Blackfeet Nation. She was a treasurer for the Blackfeet Nation and was a founder of the Native American Bank. in 1996, she was involved in a class-action lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior for mismanaging Indian Trust Funds. After 13 years, the federal government settled for $3.4 billion.
• Kimberlé Crenshaw: Crenshaw is both a scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, and Black feminist legal theory. She also works with Columbia Law School and the University of California. She’s known for coining the term “intersectionality” for the bind of racial and gender discrimination and for her writings on the “school to prison pipeline” for Black children and the killings of Black women by police.
• Peggy McIntosh: McIntosh is a feminist activist, author, and speaker who has taught at multiple universities, including Harvard. She is known for writing over 40 papers on privilege, women’s studies, educational reform, and systemic change. She wrote her most well-known article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” in 1989. She is also the founder of the National SEED (Seeking Education Equity and Diversity) Project on Inclusive Curriculum.
• Judith Plaskow: Known for being the first Jewish feminist theologian, Plaskow has worked on developing Jewish feminist theology. Her work “Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective” discusses the lack of female perspectives in Jewish history and how it has negatively impacted the religion. She also created the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion and served as the editor for 10 years and between 2012-2016.
• Loretta Ross: Ross is an activist for reproductive justice, especially for women of color. Her career has been spent reframing reproductive rights within a broader context of human rights through grassroots organizations and leadership. She also teaches courses of white supremacy and human rights at Smith College.
• Allucquére Rosanne Stone: Also known as Sandy Stone, she is a media theorist, performance artist, and educator. She is known for her work seeking to understand womanhood and being a transgender woman. Stone wrote the 1987 essay “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto.” Not to mention, early in her career, she was a sound engineer for musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead before her work in second-wave feminism.
• Anna Wessels Williams (1863-1953): Williams was known for her work in studying immune responses to diseases and for developing vaccines and treatments for diseases such as rabies, scarlet fever, smallpox, and diphtheria. Her study on the brains of rabies-infected animals led to the creation of the standard rabies test, which was used over the next 30 years. Additionally, she served on the chair of the American Public Health Association’s laboratory section and was the first woman to do so.

The induction ceremony will be held on September 30 at 2 p.m., with the 50th induction anniversary gala taking place that evening. Tickets for the event will be on sale in June. More information about the inductees can be found on the Hall of Fame’s website.