[2] Her mother was the first Black woman valedictorian at a Denver public high school.
[1] She faced racist obstructions like being excluded from living on campus, prevented from studying with white students, and denied hands-on learning.
[1] After one year, she was recruited by Dr. John Chenault to be the Chief Surgical Nurse at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as part of the Infantile Polio Paralysis Unit of the Andrew Memorial Hospital.
In this role, she cared for young Black patients with polio who could not receive treatment at other hospitals because of their skin color, and she established medical-treatment protocols for the disease.
[4] Zipporah contracted tuberculosis in 1947 and returned to Denver, ending her career as a nurse.
[5] She donated to dozens of charitable organizations such as Mental Health American of Colorado, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Denver Rescue Mission, Senior Support Services, Friends of Manual High School, Gathering Place a Place for Women, Alzheimer's Research and more.