Mary Daly was a high school dropout who eventually made her way to become a group vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

“I took the crooked path up,” Daly said of her winding journey to her current position. “It gave me strength.”

The University of Missouri-Kansas City alum is no bragger and never wanted to be seen as such, so she has kept her tale of making it with hard work and tough choices to herself until recently. Read more.