This week’s #SundayScientistShoutout is Betty Reid Soskin (born 1921)!

Soskin is a ranger with the @NationalParkService and at the age of 99, she is still serving as a ranger.

The oldest ranger to ever work as a National Park Ranger!

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#WomeninWildlife

Soskin was born in Detroit to Lousisanna Natives with Creole and Cajun backgrounds.

She spent her early childhood in New Orleans, LA until a hurricane/flood caused them to move to Oakland, CA.

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#WomeninWildlife
#SundayScientistShoutout

During WWII, Soskin worked as a clerk for Boilermakers Union A-36, a Jim Crow all-black union auxiliary where she assisted Black American workers who had to move frequently.

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#SundayScientistShoutout
#WomeninWildlife

After this, Soskin and her husband (Mel Reid) started a small black-owned business (Reid's Records) specializing in Gospel music before moving to Walnut Creek, CA, in the 1950s so their children could attend better schools.

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#DiversityinSTEM
#SundayScientistShoutout

In Walnut Creek, they were faced with racism after moving into a white suburb

This lead Soskin to became an active member of the Black Caucus of the Unitarian Universalist Assoc. - becoming a songwriter in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s

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#SundayScientistShoutout