70 Influential Women: In Virginia It's TV News Pioneer

Peggy Whitson, an Iowa native, spent more time in space than any other U.S. astronaut. On Earth, Idaho native Lisa Davis oversees U.S. operations of Siemens, a powerful German-based conglomerate. Mississippi native Oprah Winfrey grew up to become one of the most powerful and influential women in the world. They join TV host Katie Couric of Virginia in a new report that lists the most inspirational women in the world.

The list is impressive. It includes 70 women worldwide, including one born in each of the U.S. states, who are challenging the status quo and inspiring change. The team from Business.org said it spent weeks identifying some of the world’s most accomplished women. The list also includes women from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.

“We were absolutely blown away at how powerful these women are,” the organization said. “There’s something to be said about how a person’s birthplace affects who they ultimately become.

Couric, a University of Virginia graduate, began her career in journalism as an assistant at the ABC network. Later she became a reporter for NBC and then went on to become one of the leading personalities in the news business as the co-anchor of "Today" starting in 1997. Couric was named the first solo female anchor of the CBS Evening News in 2006, and in 2012 she became host of the ABC talk show, "Katie." Since early 2014, Couric has served as global news anchor for Yahoo.

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Last year Couric produced the much talked about documentary “Gender Revolution,” which aired on the National Geographic channel. Now her new docuseries, “America Inside Out with Katie Couric,” has begun airing with segments on gender inequality, Muslims in America, political correctness, white working-class anxiety, how technology is affecting humanity and the battle over Confederate monuments and statues. THat last topic placed her back in Charlottesville, Virginia, last summer when the alt-right protest there turned violent. One of her camera operators was hit with a “urine bomb."

“It was scary, I was scared,” Couric told IndieWire’s TURN IT ON podcast. “The number of guns that were there, with an open carry state, and the number of various Neo-Nazi groups, it was quite terrifying. The scariest things was the number of young men who participated in this. Young men in their 20s, which was unsettling to say the least.”

Influential women in the United States who received mention are:

Alabama: Mia Hamm, women’s soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist;

Alaska: Irene Bedard, actress and Golden Globes winner;

Arizona: Gabrielle Giffords, former U.S. House representative and gun control activist;

Arkansas: Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation;

California: Jessica Alba, actress and founder of the Honest Company;

Colorado: Melissa Benoist, singer and actress;

Connecticut: Glenn Close, award-winning actress;

Delaware: Nancy J. Currie, engineer, United States Army officer, and NASA astronaut;

District of Columbia: Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and founder of Leanin.org;

Florida: Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx;

Georgia: Sally Yates, former U.S. deputy attorney general;

Hawaii: Bette Midler, award-winning singer, actress and film producer;

Idaho: Lisa Davis, chair and CEO of Siemens;

Illinois: Ginni Rometty, chairwoman, president and CEO of IBM;

Indiana: Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president at Apple and the former CEO of Burberry;

Iowa: Peggy Whitson, biochemistry researcher, NASA astronaut, and former NASA chief astronaut;

Kansas: Marillyn A. Hewson, chairwoman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin;

Kentucky: Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Award-winning actress;

Louisiana: Ellen DeGeneres, comedian, television host, actress, writer, producer, and LGBT activist;

Maine: Anna Kendrick, actress and singer;

Maryland: Adena Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq;

Massachusetts: Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning actress, Olympic archer, and founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media;

Michigan: Mary Barra, chairwoman and CEO of General Motors Co.;

Minnesota: Lindsey Vonn, Olympic gold medal skier and four-time World Cup winner;

Mississippi: Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist;

Missouri: Sheryl Crow, Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter;

Montana: Barbara Ehrenreich, award-winning writer and journalist;

Nebraska: Deanna Mulligan, president and CEO of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America;

Nevada: Jennifer Harman, professional poker player and two-time winner of a World Series of Poker bracelet;

New Hampshire: Sarah Silverman, award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and producer;

New Jersey: Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia;

New Mexico: Holly Holm, mixed martial artist and the first person, male or female, to win both boxing and MMA championships;

New York: Meg Whitman, who has worked for the Walt Disney Company, Ebay, Dreamworks, Procter & Gamble, and Hewlett-Packard;

North Carolina: Julianne Moore, award-winning actress;

North Dakota: Jocelyne Lamoureux, Olympic gold medal hockey player;

Ohio: Lynn Good, president and CEO of the Fortune 500 company Duke Energy;

Oklahoma: Donna Nelson, a chemist who served as a science advisor on AMC’s hit television show “Breaking Bad” and 2016 president of the American Chemical Society;

Oregon: Sarah Mensah, vice president of the Nike Jordan Brand and former chief operating officer of the Portland Trailblazers;

Pennsylvania: Tory Burch, chairwoman, CEO and designer of fashion label Tory Burch LLC and founder of the Tory Burch Foundation, which supports women in America with small business loans and entrepreneurial advice;

Rhode Island: Ellen Slattery, owner of Gracie’s, one of the founding restaurants of the Providence foodie scene, and Ellie’s Bakery;

South Carolina: Renee Hembree, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Teen Angels;

South Dakota: Kristi Noem, who has served as South Dakota’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2011;

Tennessee: Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft;

Texas: Beyonce, singer/songwriter and businesswoman;

Utah: Whitney Wolf, founder and CEO of Bumble;

Vermont: Trudy Trombley, owner of “The Boutique” and general manager of Stowe Mercantile;

Virginia: Katie Couric, former co-anchor of NBC’s “Today” and the first solo female anchor of the CBS Evening News;

Washington: Bonnie J. Dunbar, retired NASA astronaut, president and CEO of the Seattle Museum of Space and a professor at Texas A&M;

West Virginia: Katherine Johnson, one of NASA’s “human computers” who calculated the trajectories, launch windows, and emergency back-up return paths for early space flights;

Wisconsin: Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo!; and

Wyoming: Carol B. Tomé, CFO of The Home Depot since 2001 and executive vice president of corporate services in 2017.

Read more about the 70 Inspirational Women Impacting the World in 2018.

Photo courtesy of Business.org