When women first enrolled at Kenyon in 1969, Susan McGannon, Class of 1972, was the only woman in all of her classes but one. "I developed my muscle at Kenyon," she laughs. McGannon was the first woman religious studies major at Kenyon, and she's been blazing trails ever since, all the way to her current position as the city attorney of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

"Kenyon had a big influence in developing my feminism. The important part, though, was the experience of leadership that came with it." The Westport, Connecticut, native enrolled in the Vanderbilt Law School after Kenyon. She was "surprised into" an interest in state and local government while interning for the firm of Griffith and Stokes, which hired her after graduation. Soon after, McGannon drafted groundbreaking legislation for the Tennessee Municipal League, establishing the nation's first liability pool for local governments.

When McGannon became a partner, she was only the second woman partner in a major Nashville law firm. A prominent figure on the state's legal landscape ever since, she has served on the Tennessee Bar Association's Board of Governors and the state Supreme Court's Commission on Continuing Legal Education.

Her pioneering experience at Kenyon fueled McGannon's drive to develop opportunities for women in the law. "In 1976, there were more women enrolled in law school than there were women admitted to the bar nationally," she recollects. McGannon maintains her ties with Kenyon, serving a term as Alumni Trustee from 1991-1994.

Immediately after law school, McGannon organized the Lawyers' Association for Women. The fledgling group, composed of women and men alike, successfully promoted women for judgeships and appointments to commissions. Today the group is the influential Tennessee Lawyers for Women.