Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg)
Stephenson-Goodknight at Wikimania 2023
|
|
| Born |
Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight
December 5, 1953 Gary, Indiana, U.S.
|
| Other names | Rosiestep |
| Education | California State University, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Los Angeles |
| Occupation | Business administrator |
| Known for | Wikipedia editor |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | David Albala (grandfather) Paulina Lebl-Albala (grandmother) |
| Awards | Wikipedian of the Year (2016) |
Dame Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight (born December 5, 1953) is an American Wikipedia editor. She is known online by her username Rosiestep. Rosie is famous for her work to fix gender bias in the online encyclopedia. She leads projects to create more articles about women and make existing ones better. She has written thousands of new articles herself.
In 2016, Rosie was named co-Wikipedian of the Year. This is a special award given to people who make outstanding contributions to Wikipedia. In May 2018, she received a special honor from Serbia. She was made a Dame of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism. In October 2021, she was chosen to join the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. This board helps guide Wikipedia and its related projects.
Contents
Early Life and Background
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight has Serbian family roots. Her grandmother, Paulina Lebl-Albala, was an active feminist. She was also the president of the University Women of Yugoslavia. Rosie's grandfather, David Albala, was a doctor and a Zionist leader. He was once the president of the Sephardi community in Belgrade.
From a young age, Rosie was very interested in different world cultures. She wanted to study anthropology, which is the study of human societies and cultures. However, her father encouraged her to choose a more practical career path. So, she earned a Master of Business Administration degree instead.
Her Work on Wikipedia
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight started editing Wikipedia in 2007. Her son, who was working with the Peace Corps in Ukraine, told her that anyone could edit Wikipedia. She began editing when she noticed there was missing information about books published by the Book League of America. She found that Wikipedia was a great way to explore her interest in anthropology. She was inspired by the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead.
Rosie once shared her thoughts:
I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Mead and study cultural anthropology... But my dad said 'no' to majoring in anthropology—he wanted something more practical for my university studies. So now, years later, I get to live the life of an armchair cultural anthropologist, writing articles about Goaribari Island and its cannibals. To all the girls out there with impractical dreams, this article is dedicated to you.
For several years, Rosie created articles about geography, buildings, and many different people. More recently, she has focused on writing biographies about women. By 2013, the UK Huffington Post featured her for writing over 3,000 new articles for Wikipedia. At that time, more than 1,000 of her articles had been featured on Wikipedia's "Did you know?" section on the main page. She was the first woman to achieve this on the English Wikipedia.
By 2016, she had created over 4,000 new articles and made more than 100,000 edits. When she received the Wikipedian of the Year award in 2016, it was noted that over 1,300 of her articles had appeared on "Did you know?". She shared this award with fellow editor Emily Temple-Wood.
Rosie also helped start several important projects:
- WikiProject Women
- WikiProject Women writers
- Women in Red
These projects have helped increase the percentage of articles about women on Wikipedia. They raised it from 15.5% to 16.35%. She has also participated in events like the Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon in April 2016.
Rosie believes that there is plenty of information available to write strong biographies about women. She encourages women to contribute to Wikipedia. She explains, "What Wikipedia needs is you, the female editor, with your unique aptitudes and interests and talkpage tone. Without you, gender imbalance and systemic bias continue on Wikipedia."
On January 23, 2020, Wikipedia announced that Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight created the 6,000,000th article on Wikipedia. This article was about the Canadian author Maria Elise Turner Lauder.
Awards and Special Honors
.jpg)
On December 14, 2017, Rosie was a special guest at an event. This event was hosted by Israel's ambassador to Serbia, Alona Fisher-Kamm. It celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Israel.
On May 29, 2018, Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight received a high diplomatic honor. She was appointed a "Dame of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism" (Vitez svetosavskog pacifizma). This award was given by the Deputy Serbian Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dačić. She received it for her work on Wikipedia to remember Serbs from the "hundred years since the Great War." Her contribution to preserving the memory of her grandfather, David Albala, was specifically mentioned. He was a Serbian military officer and a leader in the Jewish community.
Personal Life
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight works as a business administrator for a healthcare company in Las Vegas. She has homes in Las Vegas and in Nevada City, California.
See also
In Spanish: Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight para niños
- List of Wikipedia people
- Serbian Americans
