At the 2002 NCGE Women in Geographic Education luncheon, several members of the Special Interest Network discussed the idea of creating a calendar to celebrate women geography educators whose contributions to the discipline have been significant. The primary purpose of this project is to recognize the accomplishments of our foremothers and, we hope, to inspire young women today to pursue careers in geography and geography education. The strong visual of a calendar depicting historic women in geography education—in the field, in the classroom, in a lab, or in a formal pose—should prompt conversations with our students and colleagues, both women and men, about the history of our discipline.  Additionally, we believe the calendar will serve as daily inspiration to all of us actively engaged in the field today.  Proceeds from the sale of this calendar will benefit the NCGE Women in Geographic Education Scholarship Fund.

We solicited input for historic women to include on the calendar via geography education and feminist geography listservs and the NCGE newsletter (see list below). With the invaluable assistance of Janice Monk, the NCGE Central Office, and many other individuals and organizations, we have been able to compile photographs and biographies of women geography educators. In selecting women to include from among the nominees, we considered availability and quality of images, the individuals' contributions to geography education, and diversity of institutional settings in which the women worked.

Publication of this calendar has been supported by a generous grant from the Geographic Education National Implementation Project (GENIP).

We are pleased to feature 13 women in this first calendar, and we have compiled nearly enough information for the 2006 edition. We hope you find the these important geography educators to be as inspiring and thought-provoking as we have. We welcome your comments and suggestions for additional "calendar women."