Freda Porter, a member of the

Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina. The tribe represents Lumbee people. They have federal recognition as a Native American tribe but do not receive the benefits accorded to most other federally-recog ...

, 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 have federal recognition as a Native American tribe but do not receive the benefits accorded to most other federally-recogn ...

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

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

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

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

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 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. 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 The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also ...

. 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