North Carolina State University (MS, 1981) 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.
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] Porter began her career as an assistant professor of mathematics at Pembroke State University from 1991 to 1994.