Dr. Margaret Ellen Mayo Tolbert is a biochemist who has served as a chemistry professor at Tuskegee University and director of the Carver Research Foundation of Tuskegee University. Additionally, she has served in a guest research position at the International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology in Brussels, Belgium, professor and associate dean of the School of Pharmacy at Florida A&M University, and associate professor.
Education
Tuskegee University, Wayne State University, and Brown University. Dr. Tolbert enrolled in the Chemistry Department at Tuskegee Institute after graduating from East Suffolk High School (Suffolk, Virginia) in 1963. Although her initial ambition was to become a medical doctor, she enrolled at Tuskegee Institute (currently Tuskegee University) as a chemistry major in the Chemistry Department and never transferred to a medical school. In 1967, she graduated with high honors from the Tuskegee Institute with a Bachelor of Science Degree in chemistry and a minor in mathematics. She earned a Master of Science Degree in analytical chemistry from Wayne State University in 1968, and in 1974, she earned a Doctor of Philosophy in biochemistry from Brown University where she was enrolled in the Division of Medical Sciences.
Career
Dr. Tolbert’s career is diversified. She has been employed as a research scientist at Tuskegee Institute (Currently Tuskegee University), and later as an instructor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute. Eventually, she received an appointment as a professor of chemistry at the same institute. After a few years, she received an appointment to Florida A&M University where she served as a full professor of pharmaceutical science and as associate dean of the School of Pharmacy. Her research endeavors (i.e., signal transduction in isolated hepatocytes/drug metabolism) took me from the Carver Research Foundation of Tuskegee University and Florida A&M University to various centers of research such as Brown University (1970‑73 and 1979), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Biomedical Institute, Summer 1974), University of Texas Medical School at Houston (Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy; Department of Pharmacology; Summer 1977), the NARACOM/ARIEM (Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine) in Natick, MA (projects were conducted on-site and at Tuskegee University between 1980 and 1985), and the International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology in Brussels, Belgium (five months in 1978‑1979). Dr. Tolbert also served as a research advisor and mentor for several graduate students and early career adults in the sciences. Additional positions in which she has served are as follow: Director, Carver Research Foundation of Tuskegee University (Concurrent Positions: Associate Provost for R&D, Tuskegee University); Budgets & Control Analyst and Senior Planner, British Petroleum America Research Center at Warrensville Hts., OH; Director, Research Improvement in Minority Institutions Program (served concurrently as Staff Associate for Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Technology, and Education and as a Member of Committees and Subcommittees of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology) at the National Science Foundation; Consulting Scientist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute through TeleSec Services, Inc.; Director, Division of Education Programs at Argonne National Laboratory; Director, New Brunswick Laboratory/U.S. Department of Energy; and Senior Advisor (a concurrent position with that of executive liaison of the National Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering), National Science Foundation . Dr. Tolbert has developed and implemented scientific programs and workshops and published reports on scientific topics, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and books.
Throughout Dr. Tolbert’s career, her contributions to society have been recognized and applauded. She has received numerous awards. Included among her awards are the prestigious Strong Men & Women in Virginia History Award (2017) from the State of Virginia and an appointment as a Fellow of the AAAS.
At the British Petroleum America Company, she served as a senior planner and senior budgets and control analyst. She has served as director of the Division of Educational Programs at Argonne National Laboratory and as a Senior Advisor at the National Science Foundation where she also served as an executive liaison for the National Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. Prior to her employment at the National Science Foundation, Dr. Tolbert served as director of the US Department of Energy’s New Brunswick Laboratory. She retired in 2011.
