Black History Month: Glass Ceiling Breaker

 Rear Admiral Evelyn Fields

Rear Admiral Fields, broke both the glass ceiling and racial barriers when she became, “the first woman officer from any of the U.S. uniformed services to command a commissioned U.S. ship.” (First Woman, 88). Fields grew up in Norfolk, VA, and graduated with a degree in mathematics from Norfolk State University. She became an officer 1973, and, in 1999, she became the first woman and first African American to command the Office of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Corps Operations and NOAA Commissioned Corps (Kouhestani, 1999).

Press release about Rear Admiral Evelyn Fields:
http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases99/july99/noaa99052.html

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Sources:
First Woman Ship Captain: Pioneer in U.S. Uniformed Services Finds Smooth Sailing. (1990, June). Ebony. pp. 88-90.

Kouhestani, J. (1999, July 27). Rear Admiral Evelyn J. Fields Formally Assumes Command of Office of NOAA Corps Operations and NOAA Commissioned Corps. NOAA Public Affairs. Retrieved from: http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases99/july99/noaa99052.html