Sally Roesch Wagner, Ph.D.,

Sally Roesch Wagner, Ph.D., is a nationally recognized lecturer. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, Inc. and the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center for Social Justice Dialogue in Fayetteville, New York. She is also the Founding Director of the Girl Ambassador for Human Rights Program, and a consultant to the National Women’s History Project.

As a feminist pioneer, she was the first women to receive a doctorate in the United States for her work in women’s studies, going on to be the country’s first professor of the college women’s studies program. She continued her passion by teaching women’s history for 48 years. Dr. Wagner has been a Public Scholar at Humanities New York; she served as a Humanities scholar in 17 states, and is currently an Adjunct Faculty member of St. John Fisher Executive Leadership Program, and an Adjunct of the Renee Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University.

Her essays have appeared in publications such as U.S.A. Today, the Encyclopedia of America Indian History, Ms. Magazine and the Journal of Museum Education. She has received the Katherine Coffey Award for outstanding service to museology from the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in 2011. In 2015, she was named one of the “21 Women Leaders for the 21 Century,” by Women’s E-News in 2015.

She appeared as a “talking head” in Ken Burns’ documentaries, "Not for Ourselves Alone," and wrote the faculty guide for PBS’s story of Elizabeth Cady and Susan B. Anthony. She has also appeared in films including PBS’s One Women, One Vote and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.

Dr. Wagner has presented her knowledge through radio interviews including BBC and NPR’s “All Things Considered” and "Democracy Now.” She has lectured to thousands at colleges, universities, and schools across the country while keynoting a wide range of conferences and conventions, including the NY Women’s Bar Association; Soroptimist International: the American Association of School Administration, Women Administrator Conference and the White Calf Women Society.

Originally born and raised in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Dr. Wagner has two children and three grandchildren.