The Times Leader, along with our sister publications The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register, will launch our annual “Progress” edition on Monday, bringing our readers six special sections over the course of three days.

Each year, we provide these supplemental looks at aspects of life in the Ohio Valley, such as Education, Health Care, Community, Finance, Manufactuinrg & Technology, and Professional & Entrepreneurs. What is exciting about this year’s rendition of Progress is that it focuses soley on women and the pivotal roles they play in just about every field under the sun.

As the daughter of a woman who was the first generation of her family to become college educated and to enter the professional world, I was thrilled to hear the stories behind the lives and careers of the women I was fortunate enough to interview for these sections.

Mom would have been proud of each and every individual who will be featured on these pages. I suspect that many of you will also be impressed with the variety of fields where we found women filling key roles.

You might also be surprised to learn what kept these women here in the local area to not only pursue their careers, but to also build their lives and, in may cases, raise their families.

The supplements will be published two at a time on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the coming week. If you do not receive one of our papers via home delivery, I urge you to pick up a copy and enjoy.

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I would also like to call your attention to the fact that I surrendered a portion of the space I usually dedicate to this column to make way for the many letters to the editor that we received this week. As you can see below, numerous readers with widely varied viewpoints took advantage of the oportunity to express themselves here on our pages.

We welcome them all. Please, keep them coming.