Freda Porter, a member of the

Lumbee The Lumbee are a Native American people primarily centered in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland counties in North Carolina. They also live in surrounding states and Baltimore, Maryland. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recog ...

tribe of North Carolina, is an applied mathematician and environmental scientist known as one of the first Native American women to earn a PhD in the mathematical sciences. She is the president and CEO of Porter Scientific, Inc. and president of Lumbee Tribe Enterprises, LLC.

Early life and education

Freda Porter, a member of the

Lumbee tribe The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina. The tribe represents Lumbee people. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe. With an estimated 55,000 members, the Lumbee Tribe of North Caroli ...

, was born on October 14, 1957, in Lumberton, North Carolina. She holds a BS in applied mathematics with a minor in computer science from

Pembroke State University The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP or UNC Pembroke) is a public university in Pembroke, North Carolina. UNC Pembroke is a master's level degree-granting university and part of the University of North Carolina system. Its history i ...

, and a MS in applied mathematics with a minor in computer science from

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

. In 1991, she earned a PhD in applied mathematics, specializing in numerical modeling, from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Career

Porter began her career as an assistant professor of mathematics at Pembroke State University from 1991 to 1994. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. Her postdoctoral research focused on modeling groundwater contamination in collaboration with the

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

, and noise modeling and simulation research in collaboration with the

NASA Langley Research Center The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, Hampton, Virginia, United States, United States of America, is the oldest of NASA's NASA facilities#List of field centers, field centers. It directly borders Langle ...

. In 1997, she founded Porter Scientific, Inc., an environmental consulting agency, where she currently serves as the president and CEO. Porter is also known for her involvement with Lumbee tribal government. In 2017, she was elected by the Lumbee Tribal Council to serve as full-time administrator for the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She held this position until 2020, when she was appointed interim president of Lumbee Tribe Enterprises, LLC, a government and industry contracting company owned by the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Porter has served as an advocate for Native Americans in STEM throughout her career. She founded the Pembroke State chapter of the

American Indian Science and Engineering Society The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nation and other ...

(AISES) in 1991, and directed a science and mathematics summer program for Native American high schoolers for three years. She has also served as a member of the Mathematical Association of America's Committee of Minority Participation in Mathematics from 1994 to 1999, and a trustee for the

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

from 2006 to 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Freda Wikipedia Student Program 1957 births Living people Lumbee people American women mathematicians North Carolina State University alumni Duke University alumni People from Lumberton, North Carolina 21st-century American women 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women