In 1980, at age 21, Kathryn J. McInnis became the youngest woman elected to a municipal office in the United States. As a Saco City Councilor, she immediately began championing the rights of people with disabilities. Her tenacity and visibility led to a stint with the Maine Association of Handicapped Persons (MAHP), first as its president and later as chief political organizer. She played a key role in prominent MAHP cases involving the inaccessibility of public buses. Led by McInnis, the association sued the U.S. Department of Transportation. In a subsequent federal court ruling, Maine became the first state to declare access to mass transportation a civil right, setting a precedent nationwide.

McInnis was also a regional coordinator in the effort to gain passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and, as one of its authors, attended the act's signing into law. McInnis has also been a community organizer with Indigenous Resistance Against Tribal Extinction (IRATE), an Indian rights organization. She has also worked on apartheid and gay rights issues.

See a list of past recipients