Episode 69: Lois Cooper
Lois Cooper was born in 1931 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. As a child Lois was an avid reader and read anything she could get her hands on. In high school she was involved in student government and thought she wanted to be a lawyer at first. She first went to Tougaloo College outside of Jackson, Mississippi and quickly realized that she preferred math and didn’t want to pursue a law degree. After her first year, she transferred to LA City College and later to LA State College as a math major. She was the only woman in many of her math classes, and a black woman at that. Lois applied as an Engineering Aide at the California Department of Architecture but was turned down for the job when they realized she was a woman. The next job she applied for was also an Engineering Aide but at the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans. She got the job and was the first black person hired in the Engineering Department in 1953. In 1971, Lois joined the LA Council of Black Professional Engineers as the only woman. Eventually she would become the president. One of Lois’ main focuses with the council was to get more black students to go into engineering. They would tutor students in math and science and bridge the gap between universities and high schools with prospective students. In 1975, Lois enrolled back at Cal State LA to get her civil engineering degree. After getting her degree, she passed the Professional Engineering Exam on her first try and became the first black woman engineer at Caltrans. Lois worked on many projects during her career at Caltrans such as The Century Freeway, the San Diego Freeway, the Long Beach Freeway, and the Riverside Freeway. She retired from Caltrans in 1991. She continued to tutor students during her retirement. Lois passed away in 2014.
Caryatid: Jennifer Sudario, P.E.
Jennifer studied architecture at UC Berkeley with a minor in structural engineering. That minor made her realize that her passion was actually in structural engineering, so she went to Cal Poly to get her Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering in 2012. After she graduated, she started working at ARUP in San Francisco and was a bridge engineer for five years. In 2018, she transferred to the LA office of ARUP as a Senior Bridge Engineer where she worked on cut-and-cover tunnel and reinforced concrete design of freeways in the LA area. In April of last year, Jennifer was promoted to be ARUP’s West Coast Bridge Team Leader.
References
Nester, Jackie. “Women Engineers of the 20th Century: Meet Lois Cooper.” Institute for Transportation, 12 Nov. 2015, intrans.iastate.edu/news/women-engineers-of-the-20th-century-meet-lois-cooper. Accessed 6 Nov. 2022.
Rice, Deborah. “Oral-History:Lois Cooper - Engineering and Technology History Wiki.” ETHW, 12 Jan. 2015, ethw.org/Oral-History:Lois_Cooper. Accessed 6 Nov. 2022.
W + A. “Lois Cooper: First Black Woman Transportation Engineer at Caltrans | Black History Month.” Wells + Associates, 25 Mar. 2021, www.wellsandassociates.com/blog/lois-cooper-traffic-engineer. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022.
Images:
Jouan, Remi. “The Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange with the Harbor Freeway (I-110).” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_105_%28California%29. Accessed 10 Dec. 2022.
Sonysnob. “ Westbound View along I-105 Heading towards Vermont Ave, through the I-110 Interchange.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_105_%28California%29. Accessed 10 Dec. 2022.
