Deborah is a member of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, and has served as a consultant to the Columbia Shuttle Accident Investigation Board. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Chemical Process Safety, and has worked with the National Academy of Sciences as a member of the oversight committee for the Demilitarization of US Chemical Weapons Stockpile. Deborah is a member of the Board of Directors of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and is a Director for its Management Division. She is the former Chair of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Visiting Committee for Advanced Technology. Deborah currently serves as a member of the Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering New Directions Executive Committee. She was the first woman and youngest elected member on the State of Delaware Registration Board for Professional Engineers (1985-1989). During her tenure on the State Board, she was the Chair of the Law Enforcement and Ethics Committee. She is active with the Society of Women Engineers and is a member of the FIRST Robotics Executive Advisory Board. She is also a former board member of the Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network (WEPAN) and currently sits on their Corporate Advisory Committee. Deborah has been featured in the books “Engineer Your Way to Success” and “Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering – No Universal Constants.”

She has been active in the Delaware community; as former president and board member of the Chesapeake Bay Girl Scout Council, and currently sits on their Northern President’s Advisory Council. Deborah is also a board member of the Delaware Zoological Society. She is a member of Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity and served as Province President for Eastern Pennsylvania. Deborah is a past board member of the YWCA of New Castle County and the Delaware State Board of Pharmacy. In 1994, Deborah was named an outstanding Chemical Engineering Alumna by the Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering, and is a recipient of the 1986 Trailblazer Award from the Delaware Alliance of Professional Women. In 2002, she received the Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, and was named Engineer of the Year in Delaware.

Deborah was born in suburban Chicago and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with Highest Distinction from Purdue University. She received a Winston Churchill Fellowship to attend Cambridge University in England, where she received a Certificate of Post-Graduate Study in Chemical Engineering. She is a registered professional engineer in Delaware, and is married to James B. Porter, Jr., of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.