Sophia Danenberg

Sophia Danenberg, born in 1972, is an American mountaineer best known as the first African American and first black woman to climb Mount Everest. She reached the summit at 7 A.M. on 19 May 2006, aged 34, on a supported but unguided climb with Pa Nuru Sherpa. She was born Sophia Marie Scott in Okinawa, Japan, studied at Harvard University, and began rock climbing while a Fulbright Fellow at Keio University in Tokyo. She worked as an engineer at Pratt & Whitney, later developed environmental, health and safety policy at Boeing, and in 2019 was appointed a Washington State Park Commissioner.