Lott is
African-American. She graduated from
Bucknell University in 1987, with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and earned a master's degree in mathematics from
Michigan State University in 1989. She did her doctoral work in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at
Northwestern University, completing her Ph.D. in 1994. Her dissertation,
Adaptive Chebyshev Pseudo-Spectral Approximation for Shear Band Formation in Viscoplastic Materials, was jointly supervised by Alvin Bayliss and
Ted Belytschko. After postdoctoral research from 1994 to 1997 at the
University of Maryland, College Park, Lott became a faculty member at the
New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1998. She moved to Delaware State in 2003.In 2004, she was an
EDGE instructor. ==Recognition==