Freda Porter facts for kids

Freda Porter is an amazing scientist and mathematician. She is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She is famous for being one of the first Native American women to get a PhD in math. She leads two important companies: Porter Scientific, Inc. and Lumbee Tribe Enterprises, LLC.

Freda Porter's Early Life and School

Freda Porter was born on October 14, 1957. Her hometown is Lumberton, North Carolina. She is part of the Lumbee tribe.

She loved math and computers from a young age. She studied applied mathematics and computer science. She earned her first degree from Pembroke State University.

Later, she got a master's degree from North Carolina State University. In 1991, she earned her PhD from Duke University. Her PhD was in applied mathematics, focusing on how to use numbers to model real-world problems.

Freda Porter's Career and Work

After finishing her studies, Freda Porter became a math professor. She taught at Pembroke State University from 1991 to 1994. Then, she did special research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Her research looked at important environmental issues. She worked with the EPA to study how pollution spreads in groundwater. She also worked with NASA Langley Research Center on noise modeling.

In 1997, she started her own company. It is called Porter Scientific, Inc. This company helps solve environmental problems. She is still the president and CEO of this company today.

Freda Porter also helps lead the Lumbee tribe. In 2017, she was chosen to be a full-time administrator for the tribe. She held this important job until 2020. After that, she became the interim president of Lumbee Tribe Enterprises, LLC. This company helps the Lumbee Tribe work with the government and other businesses.

Helping Native Americans in STEM

Freda Porter has always worked to help Native Americans. She wants more Native American students to study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

In 1991, she started a student group at Pembroke State University. It was a chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). She also ran a summer program for Native American high school students. This program helped them learn about science and math for three years.

She was also part of a committee for the Mathematical Association of America. This committee worked to include more minority groups in mathematics. She served on it from 1994 to 1999. From 2006 to 2013, she was a trustee for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.