pioneer

ot noun

1. A person or other entity who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress. Certain politicians can be considered as pioneers of reform.
2. One who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow.
3. A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances; a sapper.
4. A member of any of several European organizations advocating abstinence from alcohol.

fe’l verb

1. To be the first to do or achieve (something), preparing the way for others to follow. The young doctor pioneered a new life-saving surgical technique.