By Brianna Williams
NOOGAtoday

Chattanooga is home to history-making women like Emma Rochelle Wheeler, Bessie Smith, Tommie Payne Duffy, Eula Lea Jarnagin, Grace McCallie, Anna Safley Houston, Abby Crawford Milton, Ruth Holmberg — and the list goes on.

March is Women’s History Month, which has been celebrated since 1987, and — to celebrate — we’ve taken your suggestions + used our local expertise to come up with this list of 17 women who deserve a place in Chattanooga’s archives.

Adrienne Cooper
Adrienne is a local Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur who created Moonlight Roller, a community of roller skaters, a mobile skate club, a roller skate brand, and most recently, a brick + mortar skate shop. You can follow Adrienne’s business @moonlightroller.
Alaina Kailyn Cobb
Rev. Alaina Cobb is a leader of the Mercy Junction interfaith congregation + co-chair of the Leadership Council of the Progressive Christian Alliance. Alaina is also a counselor, activist, author, and poet.
Alecia Vera Buckles
Alecia is a Chattanooga artist whose most recent major project is the large, colorful mural on the side of the new Kinley Hotel in Southside. She also sells original paintings, koozies, ceramics, and some seriously cute mirrors.
Ali Kay
Ali is a local painter whose work you may recognize when driving down McCallie Ave. (Hint: it’s one of our fave murals featuring a child wearing goggles + smiling wide.) She’s also an art teacher of online classes, artist retreats + more.
Ali Waller
Ali is another local artist who has been working on a powerful plaster casting project for several months now. The project is a comment on sexual abuse and features casts from over 200 women spanning from Philadelphia to Pakistan.
BbyMutha
If you haven’t checked out local rapper + entrepreneur BbyMutha’s music, now is probably a good time — especially since she just released a new seven-track EP called “Muthaleficent 2” that’s currently available on Bandcamp.
Christine “Crunk” Nguyen
Also known as “Mama Crunk,” Christine’s former pie business is currently closed, but we’re still hopeful for a triumphant return one day. A quick scroll through this mom baker’s Instagram will reveal some seriously delicious-looking dishes (and lots of adorable pics of her daughter Ada).
Dani Harris
Dani is a skilled rollerblader + skater who also serves as an administrator of the Community in Bowls Chattanooga chapter, a local group of skaters. She’s insanely talented and definitely makes us wish we had taken those middle school skating rink races more seriously.
Erika Dionne Roberts
Erika is a local poet + creative strategist whose poetry is beautiful and captivating. We may write every day, but we’ll leave the poetry side of things to you, Erika.
Jaime Barks
If you haven’t noticed, Chattanooga has a pretty impressive group of female artists. Jaime works primarily with paint, and fair warning — it’s easy to lose track of time scrolling through the photos of her work.
Jorden Jackson
Jorden is another local artist who works with mixed mediums. She also has a seriously aesthetically-pleasing Instagram feed that inspires us to buy some paint + get creative.
Jocelyn Loza
Jocelyn is a local marketing professional who has put her strength behind causes, such as educating the public about the social + cultural involvement of the Puerto Rican community in Chattanooga. She’s also the founder of Latina Professionals of Chattanooga.
Kate Veltkamp
Kate is a local vegan cook — and was also named PETA’s sexiest vegetarian in 2011, btw — who is the woman behind vegan foodie blog The Friendly Feast. And yes, we’re drooling over every single one of her recipes, too.
Kathleen Greeson
Kathleen is a local photographer with a pretty impressive resume — she’s a former Chattanooga Times Free Press photographer, Pulitzer Prize nominee, and has had her work published just about everywhere, from National Geographic to USA Today.
Laura Grace Beck
You can read her full story online, but, in short, Laura has shown unimaginable resilience after a car accident left her paralyzed from the chest down. She’s an artist and isn’t letting her spinal cord injury stop her from achieving her goals.
Linley Hollywood
Linley is a vegan chef + the owner of local restaurant Your Local Seitanist (formerly Willow Street Deli), a vegan deli that can satisfy even the stingiest meat-eaters out there (plus, her desserts are impeccable). You can follow Linley’s restaurant here.
Shawanda Mason
You may know Shawanda as co-founder of The Chattery, but did you know that she’s also a mom (of one of the cutest babies ever, in our opinion) food writer, blogger, and events specialist? Yeah, this local woman wears a lot of hats.

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