Gabrielle Giffords, Former Congresswoman

Why She’s a MAKER:The former Arizona Congresswoman is resilience personified. During a public speaking engagement in 2011, a gunman opened fire and shot Gabrielle Giffords in the head causing severe skull and brain injuries. Yet after only eight months of rehabilitation, Giffords made a miraculous recovery and returned to Washington for a critical vote over the debt ceiling. Though she resigned from Congress in 2012, Giffords says, “I’m still fighting to make the world a better place, and you can too. Strong women get things done.”

Why She Ran for Office: When she was the CEO of her family’s business, El Campo Tire, in Arizona, Giffords read about issues such as healthcare and public housing that negatively impacted her employees and her community. Her frustration sparked her determination to run for office. After serving four years in the Arizona state legislature, Giffords successfully ran for U.S. Congress in 2006 with the campaign slogan, “Change can’t wait.”

Her Mission: “Violence is a problem,” Giffords says. ”Too many children are dying. We must do something.” Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut and U.S. Navy captain Mark Kelly, started Americans for Responsible Solutions in 2012, a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible gun ownership and has grown to be a major lobbying force for gun control. “You can’t change the past,” says Mark. “Sometimes you’ve got to make the best of it [and] move on.”