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In celebration of Women’s History Month, Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush was named one of Indiana’s most influential women by the Indiana Destination Development Corp. and Visit Indiana, the official tourism organization for the state.
Chief Justice Rush was named this month alongside 29 other women who have made their mark on the state for their work in philanthropy, activism, politics, the arts and, of course, the legal profession.
“I’m honored to have been selected by Visit Indiana to be on a distinguished list with incredible women,” Rush said in a statement to The Indiana Lawyer. “It’s a privilege to serve Hoosiers as Chief Justice and to work to ensure justice and promote the rule of law every day.”
Rush was appointed to the state supreme court in 2012 by former Gov. Mitch Daniels, according to the Indiana Judicial Branch. In 2014, she was named Indiana’s first female chief justice and was reappointed to the role in 2019 and 2024.
A native of Pennsylvania, Rush moved to Indiana in 1972, where she later earned her undergraduate degree at Purdue University and her law degree at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.
Prior to serving on the supreme court, Rush spent 15 years at a Lafayette law firm and was elected three times to serve as a judge in Tippecanoe Superior Court 3.
In her role as chief justice, Rush supervises the state’s judicial branch, which includes overseeing a multi-agency central administrative office that manages caseload measures, the admission of lawyers to the state and the discipline of lawyers through the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission. Rush also works with the state Legislature to secure and allocate funding and resources.
The other influential Hoosier women named to the list:
- Philanthropist Madam CJ Walker
- Saint Mother Theodore Guerin
- Nature photographer and conservationist Gene Stratton Porter
- Suffragette Marie Stuart Edwards
- Antislavery activist Catharine Coffin
- Actress Florence Henderson
- Actress Carole Lombard
- Journalist Jane Pauley
- Singer Janet Jackson
- Educator and activist Sallie Wyatt Stewart
- Well-known Native American captive Frances Slocum
- Activist and Holocaust survivor Eva Kor
- Civil Rights activist Katherine “Flossie” Bailey
- Radio DJ Vivian Carter
- Pilot Amelia Earhart
- Suffragette May Wright Sewall
- Actress Anne Baxter
- Actress Vivica A. Fox
- Actress Shelley Long
- Writer and suffragette Ida Husted Harper
- Public housing activist Albion Fellows Bacon
- U.S. Congresswoman Katie Hall
- U.S. Congresswoman Julia Carson
- Academics Alice and Edith Hamilton
- Antislavery activists Polly Strong and Mary Clark
- Lawyer and women’s rights advocate Hellen M. Gougar
- Suffragette Amanda Way
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