Iowa Women of Achievement Awards Luncheon

The Women of Achievement Award recognizes the contributions of historical (deceased) Iowa women who made outstanding and lasting contributions to the citizens of Iowa or have advanced the well-being of others throughout the world.

This award will be a visible reminder to all crossing the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge of their contributions to their work, communities, and the status of women.

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2024 Women of Achievement Honorees:

Teree Caldwell-Johnson (1956-2024): Community Advocate and Public Servant 

Teree Caldwell-Johnson spent her entire career in public service. Born in Salina, Kansas, Teree earned a B.A. in English from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and a M.P.A. from the University of Kansas. In 1988, Teree was appointed Executive Director of the Metro Waste Authority in Des Moines, Iowa. She served in that position until 1996 when she was appointed to the position of Polk County Manager, a position she held from 1996-2003. In April 2004, Teree was appointed to the position of President and CEO for Oakridge Neighborhood and Oakridge Neighborhood Services. Teree was elected to the Des Moines School Board in 2006; re-elected to additional four-year terms and served as president of the board. She served as president of the board of directors of the National Civic League and on the boards of the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, Capital Crossroads, Polk County Housing Trust Fund, OpportUNITY, Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and The Directors Council. 

Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret (1929-2022): American Photographer, Book Publisher, and Civil Rights Activist

Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret was an American photographer, book publisher, and civil rights activist born on February 20, 1929, in Iowa City, Iowa. She attended the University of Iowa for three years, majoring in art and journalism, with an emphasis on photography. On April 6, 1951, she became the first woman to photograph herself giving birth. She contributed more than 500,000 negatives from the 1940s to 2007 to the archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa and has been called Iowa’s premier documentary photographer of the 20th century. In 1996, she was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. She co-founded Penfield Press, now Penfield Books, in 1979 and published more than 110 titles. Bourret's autobiography, Pictures and People: A Search for Visual Truth and Social Justice won the Benjamin Franklin Award by the Independent Book Publishers Association in the category of Autobiographies/Memoirs in 2012. 

Martha-Ellen Tye (1909-1998): Youth, Arts, and Community Advocate and Philanthropist 

Martha-Ellen Tye was a member of the prominent Fisher family, whose ancestor founded Fisher Controls in 1880 and put Marshalltown, Iowa on the map globally as the leader of the valve industry. In 1976, she established the Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation. From the beginning, the Foundation became the base of Martha-Ellen’s on-going, very personal approach to philanthropy. Her generosity was available to almost any good cause, and the annual list of recipient organizations and projects reflected this very broad-based personal philanthropy. Favorite areas of gifting were education, theater, music and libraries. Shortly before her death in 1998, Martha-Ellen set a somewhat altered course for the foundation by instructing that it become a professionally managed operation with the major emphasis on helping Marshalltown and the surrounding area continue to grow and prosper.