The first woman, the first Black woman and the first South-Asian American vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris has been a trailblazer her entire adult life. As the daughter of immigrants (her mother was from India and her father, Jamaican) Harris embodies both the traditional American dream and the country’s diverse future.

In 2003, she became San Francisco’s first female District Attorney; in 2010, she was elected California’s first female Attorney General and in 2016, she became just the second Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Harris made her mark at each post fighting for Civil Rights for all and asking tough questions — whether of witnesses during trials and of government officials during Congressional hearings. Now, as Harris and Joe Biden head for the White House, the Los Angeles Times puts the new vice president’s success in context, celebrates her rise as a leader and shows what her accomplishments will mean for generations to come.