Dr. Temple Grandin — long well known in cattle and meat processing circles — has been included in USA Today's 2025 Women of the Year.

Grandin ranked among USA Today's annual listing of inspiring women across America for 2025, known for her groundbreaking work in animal welfare. A Colorado State University animal science professor, Grandin has championed pioneering approaches to optimizing low-stress handling to ensure humane slaughter and stunning practices.

She was among the Meat Industry Hall of Fame's inaugural Class of 2009. She consults and speaks around the world on both autism and humane animal-handling practices, and is author of the books “Animals Make Us Human,” “Animals in Translation” and “Thinking in Pictures.” 

The article cited Grandin's numerous contributions to animal welfare and humane handling, including:

• development of dip vats to prevent cattle from drowning when they had to be submerged in chemicals to kill external parasites, which were adopted across the livestock industry
• auditing of slaughterhouses for McDonald’s, leading to a scoring system that was quickly adopted by fast-food rivals and is now widely used by producers and purchasers of meat products
• curved chutes to keep cattle moving through feedlots and center track conveyer restrainer for slaughterhouses, which have become industry standards.