SANTA FE, N.M. — On a recent field trip to view historical markers in New Mexico’s capital city of Santa Fe, seventh grader Raffi Paglayan noted the range of careers and contributions made by the women featured on them.

Paglayan’s favorite was Katherine Stinson Otero, a skywriter who was one of the first women to obtain a pilot’s license in the U.S. After Stinson Otero contracted tuberculosis while driving ambulances in World War I, she moved to New Mexico and started a second career as a renowned architect.

“She seems pretty cool,” Paglayan said with a smile.

Introducing New Mexicans to women from the state's history is the goal of a decades-long program that has put up nearly 100 roadside markers featuring the significant contributions of women from or with ties to New Mexico. Now the

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