We asked you to nominate working-mom heroes—gutsy go-getters whose innovative thinking, intrepid spirit and influential lives make you feel as if anything is possible. We were awed by the stories that poured in about women who strive each day to make a difference. Our winners this year, including an actor, a fire battalion chief, a tech exec and a scientist, are exemplary of how powerful working moms can be. Each one has made the world better, not just for herself but for all women.

INNOVATOR

Sharon McDonough, 41, first female battalion chief in the Tucson, AZ, Fire Department; mom of Madeleine, 7, and Gracie, 4 Firefighting is a field where strength counts—strength of body and strength of character. As the highest-ranking woman in Tucson's department of 650 firefighters, Battalion Chief Sharon McDonough has proved what she's made of since Day One. When she graduated from the academy in 1991, she wore her hair short because it was mandatory, slept in the male dorm and waited for a chance to use the men's bathroom. "I got static from wives, I got static from the guys," she says. "I could have dealt with things through the equal employment office, but I thought, I've got twenty years ahead." So she plowed through, and her persistence paid off—not just for her but for other females: She's helped increase the number of women in the department from three to 38. When a partner announced "I need a man on the truck, not you," she did a drill to prove that, at 5'5" and 138 pounds, she could carry him out of a burning building—no problem. "Women don't have strong arms, but we have strong legs," says Sharon. "We can do the same work as men. We just have to use our bodies differently."

Being a mother, another alarm-riddled, sleep-deprived calling, has only made her stronger. A role model at the department, Sharon was promoted to captain in 1999 and battalion chief in 2005, a rank held by only about 130 women nationwide. As for her grueling schedule, she doesn't mind 24 hours on and 24 hours off, because her ex-husband—a firefighter whom she ended up outranking and, sadly, divorcing—works alternate days, eliminating the need for child care. And after five cycles she's rewarded with a six-day leave that lets her enjoy her girls. She finds all the motivation she needs from her love of her children and her work. "You pull a child out of a crumpled car to safety and you're hooked," Sharon says.

Sharon now oversees major incidents such as apartment or tractor-trailer fires that may require 40 emergency workers, including medics and hazardous material experts. "It helps to know how to build team spirit. When I say, 'I'm sorry, I made a mistake, what can we learn from this?' some of the guys can't believe it." By giving them room to be human, Sharon has broken through the macho facade that used to reign at the station. "They know they can go to their kid's school play or T-ball game." And the only teasing she takes now is when the men call her a "kinder, gentler chief."

INSPIRATION

Kriti Agarwal, 28, project analyst at Intel Corporation, Chandler, AZ; mother of Mika, 3 Kriti Agarwal believes in the power of a dream—and not wasting a single second on self-doubt. In ten years she wants to be CIO of a Fortune 500 firm. "That's not asking too much, is it?" she says, laughing. Not judging from her trajectory thus far: She graduated from Brigham Young University in 2000 and leapfrogged from one IT position to another. Last September she landed as a project analyst at Intel, where she keeps products, like microchips, on track. "I don't tell people my age," says Kriti, who's ten to 15 years younger than her fellow managers. "I win confidence by focusing on my knowledge and my skills."

Like most working moms, Kriti has resorted to some rather unconventional methods of juggling career and family: When she was pregnant with daughter Mika, she brought her laptop to the delivery room. "I was racing to finish my MBA," Kriti explains, "and I wanted to keep up with the online classes I was taking." She gave birth on January 18, 2003, and the next day was plugged in and posting her assignments on the Web. Kriti's anything-is-possible attitude is much admired by mothers in the Phoenix area's Indian community, says her younger sister, Priyanka Agarwal. Not only has she volunteered at a local hospital, organized food drives for United Way and sponsored the education of young girls in India, "Kriti also inspires stay-at-home moms to go back to work part-time or full-time or to return to school for higher degrees," says Priyanka, who is getting her own MBA. "When we watch her, we realize that you can put your family first—and still have a career."

Kriti keeps a traditional Indian household, thanks to her husband, Raj Dubey, who works from home as a business consultant. He whips up Indian curries when she has to travel to Austin or Chicago. And she tucks Mika in when he's at meetings in San Diego. "We both believe in giving our daughter the values we grew up with," says Kriti, who will work at night so she doesn't have to miss dinnertime with her family.

"I am the daughter of a working mother," she continues, "and I want my daughter to grow up knowing that you don't have to give up your dreams. You can be a CIO and a great mom, too!"

ICON

Leslie Gordon, 41, MD, PhD, cofounder and medical director of the Progeria Research Foundation (www.progeriaresearch.org); mother of Sam, 9 Dr. Leslie Gordon waits at the bus stop outside her home in Foxboro, MA, for a third grader who loves LEGOs and Little League, who has read all the Magic Tree House books and who excels in school. But this third grade—her son, Sam Berns—is three feet tall, 25 pounds and balding. Sam was diagnosed with progeria, a rare genetic mutation that causes premature aging, when he was 22 months old. Most children with progeria die of heart disease in their teens.

But if Leslie has her way, Sam will be saved. The minute he was diagnosed, she quit her pediatric residency at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, RI, to research his condition—and channel her grief into hope. "Progeria affects one in four million to eight million children," she says. "When Sam was diagnosed in 1998, almost nothing was known about it." With the help of her husband, Scott Berns, MD, Leslie set up the Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) and recruited her sister, Audrey Gordon, a lawyer, to serve as president and full-time fund-raiser.

To give scientists the tools they needed to jump-start the research, Leslie set up a database and a cell and tissue bank at Brown University, where she is on the faculty and conducts research. PRF funded one study after another until, in 2002, Leslie's team isolated the progeria gene! They also discovered that it creates an abnormal protein leading to premature cellular aging, genetically predisposing kids to progressive heart disease. The discovery is exciting, but "it's the tip of the iceberg," says Leslie. "This opens a pathway to understanding aging and heart disease. I just know that if we help these children, what we find may be a breakthrough in aging for the rest of the world."

That's why Leslie has decided to break her vow not to work from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m.—her daily time with Sam for pillow fights and drum lessons. She now regularly flies to Bethesda, MD, to work on a drug treatment protocol at the National Institutes of Health to find a drug that may shut down the mutant protein that causes progeria. If she's able to get approval for the drug—one that has already shown promise in mice—she may win the race against time for about 40 children in 20 countries who are known to have progeria. Would all this have happened if Sam hadn't been born to a mom with an MD and PhD? "It helps that I know the scientific language," she says. "But the real motivator is passion and hope. That didn't come from a scientific background. It came from love."

IDOL

Susan Sarandon, 59, actor and activist; mom of Eva, 20, Jack, 16, and Miles, 13 She became a cultural icon outrunning the law in a '66 Thunderbird with her buddy Thelma, defied the medical community to find a cure for Lorenzo, saved her 11-year-old client from the Mob and sparked a national death-penalty debate while counseling a dead man walking. But Susan Sarandon's most challenging (and rewarding) role is that of real-life mom to her three children. "Mothering demands more imagination, patience and creativity than any other career," says Susan. Having played mother to scores of children on screen, Susan the mom has learned a thing or two from Susan the actor. "I've done enough movies about mothers who lose contact with their kids because they're trying to be perfect," says the Oscar winner and UNICEF ambassador. "It's taught me that sometimes you have to settle for a messy house and remember to have fun with your kids." Messy house and all, Susan has become one of Hollywood's most luminous idol—a strong, sexy, accomplished woman who often speaks her mind. While she isn't shy about her political ideology or her crusade against poverty and war, she does put her celebrity muscle where her mouth is: She just wrapped a public service campaign for child safety, continually works to end homelessness for impoverished children and travels the globe on behalf of UNICEF, most recently stopping in Mexico to raise awareness against child labor. Susan also carried the Olympic flag in Torino, hosted a section of the Live 8 concert in Edinburgh and just finished two movies—Mr. Woodcock and Romance and Cigarettes (phew!). But both the acting and the activism take a backseat to helping her son study for the SATs and attending basketball games. On her family's calendar, her children's activities get filled in first. Susan's work is scheduled around theirs, and she rarely travels during the school year. Her choice to be a mom first is a decision she has almost never regretted.