Meet the North Carolina Rep. taking on tobacco on the industry’s home turf

Alma Adams, a two-term U.S. representative from Greensboro, N.C. and founding member of the board of directors at Truth Initiative®, has long been an advocate for tobacco prevention.

In 2003, she took on a symbol of the state’s tobacco culture when she pushed a rule to ban smoking on the floor of the North Carolina statehouse, where she was serving as a state representative. Shortly after, she helped fully vindicate Truth Initiative in a case brought by Newport-maker Lorillard Tobacco, a major employer in her district, that accused Truth Initiative of vilifying the company and violating the terms of the Master Settlement Agreement.

We sat down with Dr. Adams to talk about her efforts in the North Carolina legislature, her path to quit smoking after more than 30 years and her thoughts about the Truth Initiative scholarship in her name, the Dr. Alma S. Adams Scholarship for Outreach and Health Communications to Reduce Tobacco Use Among Priority Populations.