Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, Contemporary Inductee 2025, is the personification of courage, persistence in the face of overwhelming obstacles, and optimism. Gabby is a third generation Arizonan born and raised in Tucson. She graduated from Scripps College, spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1995 and received her Master’s degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University in 1996. She was elected to the Arizona State Legislature 2001 and served three terms there, one in the House and two in the Senate. In 2003 she received the Arizona Family Literacy’s Outstanding Legislator award. In 2004, the Mental Health Association of Arizona named her Legislator of the year, and the Sierra Club gave her their Most Valuable Player award. She is a longtime supporter and former member of the regional board of the Anti-Defamation League. In 2005, after the catastrophic devastation of Hurricane Katrina, she spent time in Huston volunteering to help with relief efforts for hurricane victims.

In 2006 she was the third woman in Arizona’s history to be elected to the United States House of Representatives. She was a moderate who consistently tried to bridge the political gap between the two parties. In Congress she advocated comprehensive immigration reform which included modern technology to secure the border as well as a guest worker program. She supported funding for embryonic stem cell research, water resources and improved public education. She represented Arizona’s 8th congressional district and frequently held meetings with her constituents called “Congress on Your Corner.” She believed that as an elected official, her job was to represent the people of her district and to do that she needed to meet with and listen to them often. On January 8, 2011, at one of these gatherings, a gunman shot into the group, killing six and injuring nineteen people. Gabby was one of these nineteen, having been shot in the head at close range. In an instant, her life was forever changed. The injury left her with a traumatic brain injury and partially paralyzed on her right side.

After numerous surgeries Gabby was transferred to Memorial Herman-Texas Medical Center in Houston where staff worked to help her improve her physical, cognitive, motor and language skills. Her fight to recover from an unimaginable trauma is inspiring. Her determination and hard work astounded even her doctors and therapists. The documentary Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down produced in 2022 provides a glimpse into the obstacles she encountered and her relentless fight to overcome the significant impairments she faced and still faces daily. Although she was able to attend several Congressional sessions and continued to direct her staff, in January 2012, she resigned from Congress to focus on her recovery.

In 2013, after the heart-rending shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Gabby and her husband co-founded Americans for Responsible Solutions, a non-profit gun violence prevention organization.  Today she leads this organization, now called Giffords. She is a gun owner herself and understands people’s desires to own a gun. She emphasizes that her fight is not against guns, but against gun violence. Consistent with her efforts to bridge the gap between political parties, she continues to work with democrats, republicans, gunowners, non-gun owners, and victims of gun violence in Congress and in all fifty states. She knows firsthand the tragic impact on families affected by gun violence. Her organization has been a leader in the national gun safety movement. She has worked hard to help pass legislation in states across the country and at the federal level.

In addition to her work at Giffords, she co-founded the non-profit Friends of Aphasia, an organization that raises awareness about the language impairment caused by a traumatic brain injury. Aphasia can be isolating and is often misinterpreted.  Speaking and communicating with people can be difficult. Friends of Aphasia teaches that loss of words does not mean loss of intelligence. As Gabby has said many times, “Words once came easily. Today, I struggle to speak, but I’ve not lost my voice.”

On July 7, 2022, President Joe Biden awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom to Gabby for her courage while recovering from the shooting and persistence in fighting for change. One of Gabby’s former staff said of her, “When you meet her you are Gabbified.” Her ability to put people at ease, to genuinely engage with them, to generate consensus, her smile, her enthusiasm, her perseverance and courage are still evident in her work today.