Two Honored as ‘Women in Business’

NC State is well represented on this year’s list of Women in Business award-winners, announced Tuesday by the Triangle Business Journal. Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, and Terri L. Lomax, vice chancellor for research, innovation and economic development, are among 26 area women honored for their accomplishments in business and community service.

This year’s winners will be recognized at an awards luncheon on April 7 at the Raleigh Marriott City Center in downtown Raleigh. The journal will feature the winners in a special section on April 11.

“These winners are putting accomplished leadership to work in their professions, challenging any lingering gender gap,” said publisher Bryan Hamilton. “Not only are they delivering an impressive list of achievements, but they’re also champions of our community and role models to women hoping to follow in their footsteps.”

Brown-Graham joined IEI as director in January 2007. She previously worked at UNC’s Institute of Government for 13 years, training communities in strategic planning to revitalize distressed rural economies. Prior to that, she served as law clerk to William B. Shubb in the eastern district of California and as business litigation counsel at a California law firm.

She earned an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University and a law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill. She is a William C. Friday Fellow, American Marshall Fellow and Eisenhower Fellow.

Lomax joined NC State in 2006 as dean of the Graduate School and associate vice chancellor for research. She was named vice chancellor after serving as interim vice chancellor from 2008 to 2009. An award-winning researcher, she is also a professor of plant biology at the university.

Before arriving at NC State, Lomax was on assignment from Oregon State University to NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C., where she served as division director of the Fundamental Space Biology programs, acting deputy associate administrator for research in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, senior policy analyst for the NASA Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation and senior education advisor to NASA’s Office of Education. She was on faculty at Oregon State from 1987 to 2006.

Among her honors and accomplishments, Lomax has been named a Fulbright Fellow, Carnegie Fellow, National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and Monsanto Research Fellow. She was selected as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellow in 2001 and received intensive training in communicating complex issues to the media, policymakers, business leaders and the public. In 2004, she was presented the Founders Award by the American Society of Gravitational and Space Biology.

Lomax has published more than 60 articles, including several in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She has received grant and contract support totaling over $8 million for her work on 23 projects from the National Science Foundation, USDA and NASA.

Lomax holds a B.S. in Botany from the University of Washington, an M.S. in Botany/Biology from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.