Will I love Classified?

What do you think of when you picture an aerospace engineer? It’s probably some white guy in a white shirt. A native woman certainly doesn’t fit that stereotype, but that didn’t matter to Mary Gold Ross. It’s so rare to see books biographies about people who are Native working in STEM, yet representation matters.

I love that this book starts with an introduction to Cherokee values so the reader is able to fully understand their importance and impact on the life of Mary Golda Ross. As a young girl, and the only female in her college math class, she was motivated to excel, and excel she did. In 1950 she became the first female engineer at Lockheed Aircraft Company and was assigned to top-secret projects related to space and weapons programs. This is an inspiring women-in-STEM book with the additional benefit of indigenous values education.