Astrid M. Peterson earned at AB at Fresno State College and did additional study at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, the University of California, Berkeley Baptist Divinity School and the College of Chinese Studies in California. In 1930, Astrid was appointed by the Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society for service in West China, and after a year of further study, she moved to Yibin to work at the Min Teh Girls Baptist High School, where she taught English and Bible. She worked in China for the next 21 years, but returned to the U.S. in 1951, after political conditions forced her to return. In 1953, Peterson taught English as a home missionary supervising the work of the Chincese Language School operated under the auspices of the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco, California. Peterson retired in 1966.