Katherine Peden

Katherine Graham Peden (January 2, 1926 – January 8, 2006) was the first woman appointed as the Commissioner of Commerce in Kentucky. Peden was engaged in economic growth policy-making at the national and state levels during the 1960s and 70s. She was appointed to advisory positions by United States Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson. and Jimmy Carter during a time that few women were selected to serve in these positions. She was the first woman in Kentucky to win a statewide Senate primary.

In 1969 she was appointed to the board of directors of MeadWestvaco, then called Westvaco, becoming one of the first women in the nation named to a Fortune 500 company board of directors. The company credited Peden for their decision to build a major plant near Wickliffe, Kentucky, on the Mississippi River in far western Kentucky.