Presentations

Strategies for Supporting Diversity in Mathematics Departments, at North Carolina State University Math Department, Raleigh, NC, Friday, April 27, 2018:

There are many reasons, moral and practical, why we need to diversify our mathematics departments — and more generally STEM departments and the workforce. But how do we go about it? A good starting point is to realize the various barriers to an inclusive environment. In this talk, a case study will be used to illuminate some of those roadblocks. This will help us think more critically about how those barriers arise, where they arise (teaching and learning, undergraduate life, graduate student admissions and training, faculty hiring and support, etc), why they may be difficult to spot,...

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Start somewhere, to get where you want to be! Building Community and Supporting Diversity, at San Diego Convention Center, Thursday, January 11, 2018:
This talk was part of the MAA panel at the Joint Math Meetings titled What is a "Math Center" and What Can it do For Your Department?, on Thursday January 11, 2018, 2:35 p.m.-3:55 p.m. You can find my slides attached, and you can find my diversity and community-building checklist on the "Diversity" page of my website! Read more about Start somewhere, to get where you want to be! Building Community and Supporting Diversity
Using Case Studies to Discuss Issues of Diversity and Inclusion, at Pittsburgh, PA, Monday, July 10, 2017:

This talk was part of a series of 4 talks for a minisymposium on diversity I organized at the SIAM Annual Meeting in July 2017. More details and abstracts for all talks can be found here.

The talk was a 30-min diversity training using case studies, to encourage participants to discuss real-life events and to think of how they could intervene, be supportive, or talk to their department members about how to be...

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Do A Little Every Day: Supporting Diversity in Mathematics Departments, at University of Arizona Mathematics Department, Thursday, April 27, 2017:

Colloquium talk presented at the University of Arizona Mathematics Department. Abstract is below, slides are attached above. I also led a workshop using case studies, materials from that will not be posted publicly.

 

Abstract:

There are many reasons, moral or practical, why we need to diversify our mathematics departments — and more generally STEM departments — at all levels. But how do we go about pursuing this daunting and difficult goal of supporting diversity in mathematics?

In this talk I will try to convince you...

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Supporting Underrepresented Groups at the Undergraduate Level, at Philadelphia, PA, Sunday, October 2, 2016:

This talk was the first of a minisymposium I organized at the SIAM ED16 Conference (SIAM's Applied Math Education Activity Group's first conference). The minisymposium was titled "Increasing Diversity and Inclusion in Mathematics: Some Inspiring Initiatives".

This talk gave a brief overview of initiatives and funding opportunities that aim to increase participation of minorities in...

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A Diversity Training For Faculty And Graduate Students, at Philadelphia, PA, Sunday, October 2, 2016:

This talk actually consisted of a short diversity training through case studies. Attached slides show two case studies, but we only got through the first one during the actual training (25-30 minutes). The slides also contain some ground rules about what we expect of participants in such a training. Thanks to Professor Cynthia Anhalt of the University of Arizona for her help with writing the first case and running the training.

This talk was part of a minisymposium I...

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On "Averages" Saturday, February 27, 2016:

I ran a session of the Boston Teachers Math Circle on the topic of averages. We talked about different types of "averages": the arithmetic mean, the mode, the median... We even talked about the standard deviation, and other measures of spread.

But the bulk of the session was spent on exploring the fact that different data sets can have, for example, the same mean and the same standard deviation. Does that mean they "look" the same? You can find here my slides and my teaser flyer for this session.

A Placement Problem (not using test scores), at 51 Brattle Street, Grossman Common Room, Saturday, May 30, 2015:

I ran a session of the Boston Teachers Math Circle on the topic of modeling. The example we looked at was that of choosing the ideal placement of a park, knowing that four towns are sharing the costs of building it.

The objective of the session was to discover the process of modeling, and discuss the Common Core State Standards's Standard of Mathematical Practice:...

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