Hattie T. Scott was born in 1913 in Norfolk, Virginia. She worked in the U.S. Government Accounting Office helping to audit government contracts before attending Howard University, graduating in 1946, the first African American woman to earn a civil engineering degree in the United States. At Howard, she met Donald Charles Peterson, and they married in 1943 She moved to Sacramento, California to work as a survey and cartographic engineer for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In 1954, Hattie joined the local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, making her the first female engineer to work for USACE. She focused on flood risk reduction. Upon her death, Mrs. Peterson left an endowment for scholarships to help future engineers at Howard University. The USACE Sacramento district grants a Hattie Peterson Inspirational Award annually in her honor: "The purpose of the Hattie Peterson Award is to recognize the Sacramento District individual whose actions best exemplify the highest qualities of personal and professional perseverance through social challenges." One year ago today, the Trump administration removed her from the Army Corps of Engineers web site. I'm grateful to the Internet Archive for preserving her page both as a celebration of her accomplishments and as a record of current attacks on our diverse culture: https://web.archive.org/web/20250219131855/https://www.spk.usace.army.mil/Media/Images/igphoto/2002580840/ Credit: https://w.wiki/JHdz Perfect temperature. Mild winds. Lots of climbing. Most of the way up Coldwater, there were lots of cars, all going the same speed as me. They were all in a three-mile queue for the stop light at Mulholland. Lots of cars on Mulholland, but I didn't have any trouble. I stopped at a bench in Brentwood to rub my feet, to stop the stabbing pains in the balls of my feet. Sigh. I waited for several red lights on Mulholland. And all of the red lights going down San Vicente. (Although Bundy for less than a minute.)