9 Terp Women Who Shaped History

Get to know TV trailblazers, sports heroes, scientists—even an astronaut.

By Karen Shih '09 | Maryland Today 

Getting excited to root for Shyanne Sellers and the Terps women’s basketball team as they head to the Big Ten Tournament this week?

Add a cheer for another Terp who more than 50 years ago helped ensure that women could play sports at the top level: Bernice “Bunny” Sandler Ed.D. ’69. She’s one of many female University of Maryland pioneers who have transformed society, leaving their marks everything from entertainment to public health to business.

At the start of Women’s History Month, here are nine Terp alums and professors you should know about:

Gail Berman ’78
Whether you love scripted dramas like “Bones,” irreverent cartoons like “Family Guy” or reality competition shows like “American Idol,” you can thank this noted producer for bringing them to your screen. She’s led TV and movie studios, including serving as president of entertainment for Fox in the early 2000s, then president of Paramount Pictures.

She’s particularly proud of executive-producing “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” from 1997 to 2003, she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “There weren’t a lot of empowered young women on TV at the time. This show was important for female storytelling, for genres like ‘Twilight’ and anything that came after ‘Buffy.’ It changed storytelling.”

Dominique Dawes ’02
The first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics, Dawes was part of the 1996 team nicknamed the “Magnificent Seven” that topped the podium at the Atlanta Games. The three-time Olympian juggled UMD classes with training for the 1996 and 2000 competitions, and ultimately brought home four medals, including one individual bronze for floor exercise. She later became a broadcaster and co-chair of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

Now, she runs the Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academy, with three locations in Maryland, which focuses on “building a positive sense of self,” Dawes said, “and not looking at yourself and comparing yourself to someone else.”

Read the full story in Maryland Today.