Dr. Kathleen Altman began her career as a Metallurgical Engineer in 1967 when she enrolled at the Colorado School of Mines as one of only 19 female students out of a student body of about 1,500.  Although Kathy dropped out and returned to school five times before graduating in 1980, she later completed an M.S. and Ph.D. at the Mackay School of Mines.  She initially worked at the CF&I Steel Corporation.  After helping to blow down the last blast furnace in 1984, Kathy switched to the mining industry and worked at Climax, Barrick Goldstrike, FMC Gold Paradise Peak, designed mining projects with SNC-Lavalin and Samuel Engineering, taught in the Mining Engineering Department of the University of Nevada, Reno as the Newmont Processor, and consulted with Roscoe, Postle Associates and her own company. The hundreds of projects involved multiple metals and commodities and spanned approximately 30 countries across six continents.