Psychologist and Professor. She was best known as being the last survivor of the Tulsa race riots of 1921, and the first African-American woman to enter the US Coast Guard in February 1945. She became a SPAR (Semper Paratus Always Ready), a member of the US Coast Guard Women's Reserve, during World War II earning the rank of Yeoman, Second Class. She stayed in the Coast Guard until her unit was disbanded in mid-1946. After that, she went on to become a psychologist intern at a women's correctional facility and a clinical professor at Fordham University. As a child, during the Tulsa race riots, from May 31 to June 1, 1921, members of the Ku Klux Klan invaded and ransacked her home along with many other African American homes. She and her siblings hid under a table but the impact of those days led her to later become a founder of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission in hopes of demanding reparations for the riot's survivors. However, in 2003 she was among the survivors of the riot to file an unsuccessful federal lawsuit seeking reparations. Soon after the riots, her family moved to Columbus, Ohio. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1937 from Ohio State University and while there, she joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority where she advocated for African-American women to be admitted to the U.S. Navy. In 1947, she received her Masters from the Teachers College of Columbia University, and in 1961 she received her PhD in clinical psychology with the ending of her dissertation on the learning abilities of children with Down syndrome from the University of Rochester. Hooker applied to the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) of the US Navy, but was rejected due to her ethnicity. She disputed the rejection due to a technicality and was accepted, however, she had already decided to join the Coast Guard. Throughout training, Hooker became a Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) and had to attend classes and pass exams. She was one of only five African-American females to first enlist in the SPARS program. After basic training, she specialized in the yeoman rate and remained at boot camp for an additional nine weeks before heading to Boston where she performed administrative duties and earned the rank of Yeoman Second Class in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve. In June 1946, the SPAR program was disbanded and she earned the rank of petty officer 2nd class and a Good Conduct Award. In 1963, she joined Fordham University as a senior clinical lecturer and an APA Honors psychology professor; eventually she served as an associate professor until 1985. She was one of the founders of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Division 33, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and was later honored by the Association for her work with children. She served as an early director of the Kennedy Child Study Center in New York City where she gave evaluations, extra help, and support/therapy to children with learning disabilities and delays. She retired at the age of 87. She joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary at age 95 and served as an Auxiliarist in Yonkers, New York. She received the American Psychological Association Presidential Citation in 2011 and in 2012, she was inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans' Hall of Fame. On February 9, 2015, Kirsten Gillibrand spoke in Congress to "pay tribute" to Hooker. In the same year, the Olivia Hooker Dining Facility on the Staten Island coast guard facility was named in her honor. A training facility at the Coast Guard's headquarters in Washington, D.C. was also named after her that same year. On May 20, 2015, President Barack Obama recognized Hooker's Coast Guard service and legacy while in attendance at the 134th Commencement of the United States Coast Guard Academy. On November 11, 2018, Google honored her by telling her story as part of a Google Doodle for the Veterans Day holiday. She was also the subject in a book that focused on her experiences in the Tulsa race riots called Tulsa Girl by Shameen Anthanio-Williams.