Freda Porter, a member of the Lumbee 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, was born on October 14, 1957, in Lumberton, North Carolina.[1] She holds a BS in applied mathematics with a minor in computer science from Pembroke State University, and a MS in applied mathematics with a minor in computer science from North Carolina State University. In 1991, she earned a PhD in applied mathematics, specializing in numerical modeling, from Duke University.[2]
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.[2] Her postdoctoral research focused on modeling groundwater contamination in collaboration with the EPA, and noise modeling and simulation research in collaboration with the NASA Langley Research Center.[3][4][2] In 1997, she founded Porter Scientific, Inc., an environmental consulting agency, where she currently serves as the president and CEO.[1][5] 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.[6] 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.[7][8]