Julie Koh cites “peer pressure” as the impetus for her first time running the Country Music   Marathon. “But once I did it,” she recalls, “I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll do another one,’ and then, ‘I’ll do another one.’” But it’s the third half-marathon that really stands out: Koh ran it just months after being diagnosed with and treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Catherine Wyatt-Morley can divide her life into two parts: before that day in 1994 at 2 p.m., and after. In the hospital for a routine procedure, she instead learned that she was HIV positive. “I was raising three children in Brentwood,” Morley says. “I had a wonderful job, a wonderful husband. Then my life did a 180-degree turn. One moment things were fine, and the next moment someone told me I was about to die.”

Moving from one culture to another can be quite an adjustment, even when you’re only changing states! As a bilingual child growing up in New Mexico, Cristina Allen didn’t think twice about the diversity surrounding her. “The minorities were the majority,” she says, describing how natural it was to see political leaders, school principals and others in positions of respect and authority from a variety of ethnic backgrounds — Native Americans, Anglos and Hispanics alike.

The 2000 “Status of Women” report said it all: Tennessee ranked 49th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia when it came to women’s health, education, economic level and political participation. Published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the study found that services existed, but women weren’t using them — a phenomenon attributed to geography, language barriers and economics. The report caught the attention of many local groups, including the Junior League of Nashville and the Nashville Academy of Medicine Alliance.