Oralia Mercado, who was formerly Wyoming's EEO affirmative action officer, has been the executive director of Mountain Plains Agricultural Service for 20 years. The service contracts with ranchers and farmers in just about every state west of the Mississippi River and Alabama to provide guest workers. A single mother of five sons, Mercado accomplished her life's goal on her own by finishing college. She graduated from Casper College with an associate's degree in communication and from the University of Wyoming with a B.A. in humanities and fine arts in 1999, 40 years after graduating from Worland High School.