Inducted
2011
Degrees
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, West Virginia University, 1981
- M.S., Environmental Engineering, Villanova University
CCPS, AIChE — Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania
Louisa Augusta (Nolte) Nara was born in Charleston, in 1958. Growing up in the Kanawha Valley, one time known as the “chemical center of the world,” Nara was inspired by chemistry and innovations. Nara attended Nitro High School where she had a dedicated and committed chemistry teacher with strong ties to Union Carbide. The exposure to Carbide’s scientists and engineers sparked her interest in chemical engineering. She attended West Virginia University from 1976 to 1981 and was a member of the WVU Marching Band, “The Pride of West Virginia.” She met her future husband at WVU, Geoff Nara, a landscape architecture (‘79)/civil engineering (‘81) student.
She began her career in Deer Park, Texas, as a process engineer for Diamond Shamrock and from there went to the PQ Corporation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Villanova University and obtained her master’s degree in environmental engineering. After graduation, she joined SMC Environmental Services Group, Inc., as the engineering manager of industrial services.
In 1991 Nara became the engineering manager of chemical process safety for Baker Environmental, Inc., in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She started her own business, LakeRidge Technology Group Inc., providing engineering services for the chemical industry and later joined Bayer Corporation, where she held positions including corporate manager; process safety and crisis management; and director, health, environmental, safety, security and emergency response at Bayer’s largest U.S. facility in Baytown, Texas. Her last position at Bayer was as the director of risk management and compliance working in the legal department where she became a certified compliance and ethics professional.
In July 2010, after almost 30 years of working in the chemical industry, Nara took on a new role as the technical director of the Center for Chemical Process Safety, a technology alliance of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Through this position, Nara is dedicated to giving back to the industries that have been a large part of her life. She is a contributing author of the book, Guidelines for Process Safety in Batch Reactions.
She and her husband live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and have been married for 29 years.