MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES EDUCATION BOARD

Members Annotated Biographies

PHILLIP A. GRIFFITHS (Chair) is director emeritus and professor of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton that he led from 1991 to 2003. He was formerly provost and James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics at Duke University and professor of mathematics at Harvard, and he has taught at Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley.

At IAS Dr. Griffiths chairs the Science Initiative Group that oversees the Millennium Science Initiative (MSI) that he played a leading role in creating. MSI works to strengthen the science and technology capacity of developing nations through integrated projects of research and training planned and driven by local scientists. Currently, initiatives in Chile, Brazil, Mexico and sub-Saharan Africa are underway, and initiatives are being planned in Kazakhstan and Vietnam. Previously as IAS director he established the Park City Mathematics Institute that brings mathematicians and math educators together each summer to work on issues of research and practice.

Dr. Griffiths is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Associate of the Third World Academy of Sciences. From 1993-1999, he chaired the NRC’s Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy. Other NRC assignments have included membership on the Center for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education Advisory Board (1996-1998) and presently he is an ex-officio member of the U.S. National Committee for Mathematics. He has also just completed the task of chairing the Committee on Policy Implications of International Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in the United States. Dr. Griffiths served on the National Science Board from 1991-1996. He is secretary of the International Mathematical Union and serves on the boards of the Oppenheimer Funds and of GSC Lumonics. He received his PhD in mathematics from Princeton University.

MARGE M. PETIT (vice chair) was a senior associate at the National Center for Improving Educational Assessment (NCIEA) for the past several years and is now an independent consultant. Prior to joining NCIEA, Ms. Petit served as deputy commissioner of education, Vermont Department of Education, where she provided statewide leadership with Commissioner Marc Hull in the implementation of the quality aspects of The Vermont Equal Educational Opportunity Act. Ms. Petit also served as the assessment specialist with the Vermont Institute for Science, Mathematics, and Technology. As a Vermont educator for many years she has taught mathematics and science, developed assessment, mathematics and science materials, and been active in state and national policy development. Ms. Petit was a summer writer and assessment consultant to the STEM (Mathematics) Project at the University of Montana. She was a member of the national advisory board for the Voluntary National Test in Eighth-Grade Mathematics and served on the Mathematics Advisory Board for Achieve’s Middle School Mathematics Project. She was a member of the NAEP 2004 Framework Committee, the RAND Mathematics Study Panel and the NRC’s Center for Education board.

JAN DE LANGE is chairman/director of the Freudenthal Institute and a professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research focuses on modeling and applications and assessment issues and has broadened to multimedia and on issues related to implementation. He served as chairman of several Commissions for the Development of a New Curricula in the Netherlands (Hewet, Hawex, W 12-16, W-B Commission, Profielen Coordination Commission), and serves as supervisor to curriculum projects in the U.S., Bolivia and South Africa. In the U.S., he serves as the supervisor of the Dutch component of the ARISE High School Curriculum Project, on the advisory board for the STEM Middle School Curriculum Project, and as the principal investigator for the Dutch component of the Mathematics In Context project. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the International Society of Design and Development in Education. He is co-principal investigator of the Assessment Study Group of the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Science and Mathematics in the U.S. He has been a member of the National Advisory Board for the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study (TIMSS), member of the international commission for TIMSS-R, and is presently chairman of the Mathematical Functional Expert Group of OECD’s PISA Project. He also serves on the European Commission for Mathematics Education. Dr. de Lange received his Ph.D. at the University of Utrecht following graduate work in mathematics at both the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and Wayne State University in Detroit.

KEISHA M. FERGUSON is a Title I teacher at Pattengill Elementary School in Ann Arbor focusing on mathematics and literacy and a doctoral student in teacher education at the University of Michigan. Her research interests are in the introduction of new mathematics curricula in elementary schools and the demands they place on teacher knowledge. She has taught second and third grade and also served as a technology teacher for third and fourth grade students. Ms. Ferguson served as a curriculum specialist for Teach for America in The Bronx in 2003 and as a Ph.D summer associate at RAND for their study of scaling up mathematics curricula in 2004. She has been a mentor and a member of the district’s mathematics leadership team and a recipient of several awards for her teaching. Ms. Ferguson holds a bachelor of arts in elementary education with minors in mathematics and science from Michigan State University and a master of arts in curriculum development from the University of Michigan.

LOUIS GOMEZ is Aon Professor of Learning Sciences and Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University.  He is also Learning Science Program Coordinator.  Dr. Gomez' primary interest is in working with school communities to create social arrangements and curriculum that supports school reform.  Along with his colleagues, he has been dedicated to collaborative research and development with urban schools that will bring the current state-of-the-art in computing and networking technologies into pervasive use in urban schools so that they will transform instruction and support community formation. Prior to joining the faculty at Northwestern Dr. Gomez was director of Human-Computer Systems Research at Bellcore in Morristown New Jersey.  At Bellcore, he pursued an active research programs investigating techniques that improve human use of information retrieval systems and techniques which aid in the acquisition of complex computer-based skills.  Recently he was appointed to NRC’s Center for Education Board. Dr. Gomez received a BA. in Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.

JAVIER GONZALEZ is a mathematics teacher and department chair at Pioneer High School in Whittier, California. Mr. Gonzalez also has served as a mentor teacher and the coordinator of Pioneer's gifted and talented education program. He is the creator of the 15-year old Pioneer Math Academy, a six-week summer math program that serves over 700 students each year. The Academy teaches math principles by means of students' active participation in math-related projects, which, along with his other enrichment classes, are designed to foster students’ mastery and self-confidence in mathematics. In addition, he is the advisor to the Pioneer Leo Club, a program affiliated with the Lions Club that provides opportunities for young people to perform community service. He is also serving his second term on the Whittier City School District Board of Trustees. He was named the 1996 State Teacher of the Year, and is a Milken Family Foundation Outstanding Educator awardee. Mr. Gonzalez was appointed by Secretary Richard Riley to serve on the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century and he is a member of the NRC’s Teacher Advisory Council. He holds an M.A. in administrative leadership from Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego, California.

ARTHUR JAFFE is a professor of mathematics and theoretical science at Harvard University. His major scientific work has been in the realm of understanding quantum field theory and the mathematics that it inspires. His collaboration with J. Glimm led to the solution of a long-standing fundamental question by showing the mathematical compatibility of quantum theory with special relativity; they constructed the first mathematically complete and non-trivial examples of relativistic quantum field theories in two- and three-dimensional space-time. Recently his research has focused on the relation between super-symmetry and the new subject of non-commutative geometry. During the early 1980s he served on the David Committee to revitalize funding for mathematical research, and in 1983 he wrote the intellectual justification for the NRC report entitled, “Ordering the Universe: The Role of Mathematics.” In 1993, he wrote a widely quoted article with Frank Quinn entitled “Theoretical Mathematics” in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, evoking extended discussion about the concept of mathematical proof. In the 1970s, he was instrumental in starting a series of summer schools for mathematical physics in Cargèse, Corsica, which inspired many future leaders in the field. Dr. Jaffe was active in the 1970s in founding the International Association of Mathematical Physics and later served for six years as president of the association. After serving as president of the AMS (1997-1998), he became chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. In the following year he chaired the Mathematics Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Jaffe guided the conception of the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) and its programs in 1998, and he served as its founding president. At CMI, he brought mathematics sharply into public focus, drawing widespread attention to the importance of fundamental mathematical research. Dr. Jaffe has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, and currently he is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Santa Fe Institute. He edited or advised numerous journals and book series, and for twenty years was chief editor of Springer’s Communications in Mathematical Physics. Dr. Jaffe is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

JEREMY KILPATRICK is Regents Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Georgia. He is currently studying the process of changing the school mathematics curriculum, which includes documenting the history of reform efforts in the United States. He is a former vice president of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, was a charter member of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board, was a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Commission on the Future of the Standards, and has served on the NRC’s Board on International Comparative Studies in Education. He also chaired the MSEB study that produced Measuring What Counts (NRC, 1993) and chaired the Mathematics Learning Study Committee that prepared Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics (NRC, 2001). Dr. Kilpatrick has published extensively on mathematics education issues, including “Confronting Reform,” in the American Mathematical Monthly, and “Reflections on Verifying Change in School Mathematics,” in the Journal of Classroom Interaction. He has engaged in numerous editorial activities, most recently with Anna Sierpinska editing Mathematics Education as a Research Domain: A Search for Identity (1998); and with George Stanic editing A History of School Mathematics (2003). He is the recipient of multiple awards and honors, including the John W. Wilson Memorial Award and several Fulbright lecturer and scholar awards. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg. Kilpatrick received an A.A. in mathematics and science from Chaffey College; an A.B. in mathematics and an M.A. in education from the University of California, Berkeley; and an M.S. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in mathematics education from Stanford University.

JULIE M. LEGLER is director of the statistics program and associate professor in the department of mathematics, statistics and computer science at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. She is the founder of the college’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research which promotes research-based learning through NSF-sponsored undergraduate and post-doctoral fellowships, seminar series, and team collaborations across the disciplines. She has based this program’s design, in part, on the team-based research collaborations in which she was involved as a mathematical statistician at the National Institutes of Health from 1994 until 2001. Her current interests focus on innovation in statistics education with particular emphasis on the undergraduate curriculum along with ways to attract and encourage students to study mathematical sciences at the undergraduate and graduate level. She encourages students to consider ways in which they can use statistics to be of service in their own communities and internationally. Her research interests include multiple outcomes and latent variable modeling. She serves on the American Statistical Association’s (ASA) Biometrics Section executive board, the executive committee of the ASA Section on Statistical Education, and on the advisory committee of the Consortium to Advance Undergraduate Statistical Education. She received her B.A. and M.S. in statistics from the University of Minnesota and her Sc.D. in biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to earning her doctorate, she spent 10 years teaching statistics and mathematics at the undergraduate level at large public universities as well as small private colleges.

W. JAMES “JIM” LEWIS is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an award winning teacher and an elected member of UNL’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Under his leadership as department chair, his department won the University of Nebraska's 1998 University-wide Departmental Teaching Award and a 1998 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Dr. Lewis has also received awards from the UNL Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Women and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Women’s Commission for his support of opportunities for women in the mathematical sciences. He was a co-PI for the Nebraska Math and Science Initiative, Nebraska's NSF-funded SSI and for a NSF grant to revise the mathematics education of future elementary school teachers at UNL. Currently, he is lead PI for Math in the Middle, an NSF Math Science Partnership. Dr. Lewis is chair of the MAA’s Coordinating Council on Education and a member of the AMS Committee on Education. He was chair of the Steering Committee that produced the CBMS report, The Mathematical Education of Teachers, co-chair of the NRC Committee that produced Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium, and a member of the AMS Task Force that produced Towards Excellence: Leading a Doctoral Mathematics Department in the 21^st Century. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Louisiana State University.

KEVIN F. MILLER is professor of educational studies and psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His research focuses on how cognitive tools such as number-naming systems, writing systems, and other representational systems affect children’s learning. Recent research involves cross-cultural comparisons of the learning of reading and mathematics by children in China and the United States and research on how videotaped representations of classroom teaching can be used to improve mathematics education in the United States. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, served on the NRC’s Mathematics Learning Study Committee, and is currently a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Psychological Sciences and serves on the editorial board of Child Development. Dr. Miller received a Ph.D. in child and school psychology from the Institute of Child Development of the University of Minnesota. He has taught at Michigan State University, University of Texas and University of Illinois, and was a member of the Beckman Institute’s Cognitive Science Group prior to coming to the University of Michigan.

DONALD G. SAARI is a distinguished professor of mathematics and economics and director of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he has been instrumental in applying chaos theory and mathematical principles to explain voting outcomes, galaxy formation and economic dynamics. He has provided deep analyses of dynamical systems—of Newtonian n-body systems, showing collisions are improbable and non-collision singularities exist, and of classical models of economic equilibrium, showing non-convergence and modifications that converge—and he has recast voting problems in geometric terms, thereby greatly clarifying the nature of voting paradoxes. This work showed that much accepted wisdom about elections is highly flawed. He also has elucidated some of the complex considerations that need to be factored into economic analyses. Dr. Saari chairs the board of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, is chief editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society and is a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Previously, he chaired the U.S. National Committee for Mathematics. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Purdue.

NANCY J. SATTLER is dean of arts and sciences at Terra State Community College in Freemont, Ohio. She has taught mathematics for over 20 years and continues to teach distance learning mathematics courses at Terra State. Dr. Sattler chairs the Distance Learning Committee of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) and is past-chair of the Placement and Assessment Committee of AMATYC. She is past-president of the Ohio Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges and presently serves as its historian, newsletter editor and webmaster. Dr. Sattler is also chair-elect of the Ohio Mathematics and Science Coalition and has served on its executive board since 1998. She is a member of the Mathematics Review Board of the Ohio Resource Center and serves as a member of the advisory board for the Ohio Board of Regents Distributive Learning Workshop Project. Dr. Sattler holds a Ph.D. in higher education with minors in research and measurement and educational technology, a Masters of Education degree in post-secondary mathematics, and a Bachelor of Science degree in pure mathematics all from the University of Toledo.

RICHARD J. SCHAAR is an executive advisor at Texas Instruments (TI) having recently retired from his post as a senior vice president of TI where he served as the math and science education policy advisor to the corporation. Previously he was president of TI’s Education and Productivity Solutions business. Having been a mathematics instructor himself, Dr. Schaar understands many of the challenges that face today’s educators. Under his guidance, TI has developed educator support services, including technology training, that help teachers increase their confidence and ability to appropriately integrate technology into their classrooms. Dr. Schaar served on the NSF’s Advisory Committee of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, and chaired the Subcommittee on the Instructional Workforce. He extended TI’s commitment to education by partnering with NSF on educational initiatives including serving as the leading corporate sponsor of the Urban Systemic Programs, Model Institutions for Excellence, and NSF’s Superintendents’ Coalition. He is past chair of the Workforce and Human Resource Policy Committee for the American Electronics Association. Under his leadership, TI supports an executive director for the Benjamin Banneker Association and helped establish its Dorothy Strong scholarship for professional development. He holds a bachelor’s degree in science from Purdue University, an MBA from the University of Illinois, and a Doctor of Philosophy in applied mathematics from the University of Chicago. Dr. Schaar has also been recognized with a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

FRANK WANG is a scholar-in-residence at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM) in Oklahoma City, a public boarding school for academically advanced high school juniors and seniors in Oklahoma, and is a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma as well. At OSSM he teaches advanced mathematics courses such as abstract algebra and supervises independent student projects in mathematics. Prior to beginning his second career in teaching, Dr. Wang was the chairman of Saxon Publishers, Inc. (1997-2002) and its president and CEO (1994-2001), growing the company from one with two dozen employees to a major textbook publisher. He began work with the outspoken and iconoclastic founder of the company, the late John H. Saxon, Jr., as a 16-year-old high school student. He later co-authored a widely used high school calculus textbook with Saxon that was published in 1988. Dr. Wang served on an advisory panel for the proposed voluntary national test and on the planning committee for the 2004/2005 NAEP test for math. He has also written and spoken extensively about pedagogy, mathematics education and about how textbooks are developed and sold. Dr. Wang holds a B.A. from Princeton and a Ph.D from MIT and currently serves on the visiting committee for MIT’s mathematics department.