Hi, I’m Dr. Andrea Porter
I’ve wanted a PhD since I was nine. At 43, I quit my job, and my husband and I moved to Aggieland so I could chase that dream full time. Before we moved, my husband taught at a high-poverty school, and we spent a lot of time mentoring students.
Four young women I worked with went into the armed services and wrote to me from basic training about how badly their armor fit—and how much it hurt.
I was shocked to hear they didn’t have better fitting armor for women, so I set out to make a difference through my PhD research.
As I dug into the literature, I found European studies showing that fitting women with the right bra—size and type—made a huge difference in comfort and performance both in armor and in general. That led me deep into the science of bras, where I discovered this widespread bra fit problem among women.
No one is doing this research in the U.S., so it became clear God put me in place to fill this gap and help women in an overlooked struggle.