STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Panel Discussion 11:00-12:30
African-American Mathematics: Landmarks and Projects

Moderator: Kenneth Elmore, Dean of Students, Boston University

Panelists:

  • Reginald Jean, Boston University, Coordinator, Academic Curriculum and Teaching
  • Donald F. St. Mary, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Suzanne L. Weekes, Associate Department Head, Department of Mathematical Sciences, and Associate Director Center for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

    Panel Discussion 3:30-5:00
    African-American Mathematics: How to Succeed as Students

    Moderator: Terrence Richard Blackman, Department of Mathematics, Medgar Evers College, CUNY
    Panelists:

  • Isabelle Agbassi, Metropolitan College, Boston University
  • Rajini Jesudason, Education Consultant
  • A discussion and workshop on educational opportunities, study skills, the application and grant-seeking process, given by graduate students and local mentors

    • Biosketches: Moderators

    Kenneth Elmore

    holds a Master's degree from Boston University (SED '87), is a graduate of Brown University and the New England School of Law and has practiced law as an attorney at a Boston law firm before returning to the University in 2003. The dean of students is responsible for overseeing more than 350 student organizations and directing the student services and programs of such departments as the Office of Residence Life, the Office of Career Services, the George Sherman Union, Orientation and Off-Campus Services, Judicial Affairs, Multicultural Affairs, and the Community Service Center.

    Terrence R. Blackman

    is an Instructor in the Department of Mathematics at Medgar Evers College. He has taught Mathematics within the City University of New York in s ome capacity since 1990. He started as a tutor in the Math Workshop at Kingsborough Community College and as the MATHEMATICA Assistant to an experimental calculus class at Brooklyn College in 1990. After his graduation from Brooklyn College in 1991, he w orked as a Stock Broker on Wall Street. His life changed in the summer of 1992 when h e accepted an invitation from one of his undergraduate mentors Dr. Susan Hom, to work in the Family College at Kingsborough Community College. His task was to prepare sin gle mothers on public assistance to take the CUNY Math Placement Exam. One mother in the class did not pass the exam that summer. Her failure, the challenges that she and the other mothers presented as a students, and her heartfelt lament "Why do I need this Mathematics now? Can I really do this?" have in large measure defined the person al, political and professional choices of his adult life. In September of 1992 he enrolled in the Doctoral Program in Mathematics at the City U niversity Graduate School on the advice of Lisa Goldberg, his undergraduate mentor in mathematics. In September of 1993, was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship at Med gar Evers College and he has been there continuously in some capacity since then. Dur ing his tenure there, in addition to being a Lecturer in the Department of Mathematic s, he has taught in the REACH program at MEC, and he has spent many enjoyable summers and winters teaching mathematics for The Freshman Year Program. He received his M. P hil, from The Graduate School, CUNY in May of 2000. In the summer of 2000, he visited the Harish Chandra Research Institute in Allahabad India. While there he worked on A rithmetic Fuchsian Groups with his mentor Ravi Kulkarni. On his return from India, in the Fall of 2000 he was appointed Mathematics Instructor at Medgar Evers College. Du ring the 90s he also worked as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics a t John Jay College and at Lehman College in the City University of New York. Over the course of these postings he has taught, with success, most of the courses th at span the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. His record indicates a long history of successfully teaching mathematics at the undergraduate level and, in particular, a sustained and serious commitment to grappling with the challenges of teaching minor ities in urban environments. He has spoken publicly and has worked assiduously on iss ues related to minority success in mathematics. His current research interests begin with Nielsen Kernels of Riemann Surfaces and extends to the pedagogical issues that surround the teaching of mathematics in urban environments. He is also actively inter ested in the challenges of integrating technology in the Mathematics curriculum withi n these environments. Terrence lives in the Canarsie area of Brooklyn with his son Madiba, a fifth grader, at Phyls Academy.

    Biosketches: Panelists

    Isabelle Agbassi.

    Isabelle Claude-Marie Tanoe Agbassi is enrolled in the Graduate Program of the Metropolitan College of Boston University. She has expertise as a Quantitative Equity Research Analyst, a Fund Analyst and a Financial Consultant and is earning a degree in Actuarial Sciences. Ms. Agbassi holds a DEA in Statistics from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) and an MS in International Finance from HEC, School of Management.

    Reginald Jean.

    Reginald Jean is Academic Coordinator of the Boston University Upward Bound program. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Reggie Jean began his relationship with Boston University as an undergraduate student in 1991. He became a tutor with Upward Bound during the summer of 1994 while also working as a Resident Assistant with the University. Since then he has been a history teacher, and was dorm supervisor for three years with the program. In his current position as academic coordinator, Reggie provides logistical support to the teaching staff. He also works with the high school seniors throughout the academic year, helping them with the college application process and teaching them college "survival skills". Reggie is currently studying a Master's in Administration in Education and does work in different organizations to advocate programs for disadvantaged families and promote awareness of the various issues related to education.

    Rajini Jesudason

    Raj Jesudason was a Program Director in Mathematics at the Woodrow Wilson Middle School, has worked with teachers and students in the Boston, Cambridge and Watertown Public School districts, and has helped to implement initiatives in asset-based instruction and teacher development in mathematics education. Raj's experience in higher education includes serving as a Dean of Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering at a community college in California, teaching Quantitative Reasoning and Pre-Calculus mathematics at Harvard University, implementing a Quantitative Reasoning Program at Wellesley College, and teaching courses in the teacher education programs at both UMass Boston and Wheelock Colleges. Raj has presented her work on transcending the Achievement Gap and the integration of mathematics across disciplines, at regional conferences, including Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Black Policy conference, as well as the Southern California Community College Consortium, MathWest conference in Massachusetts, and Quantitative Literacy Consortium of the Northwest. Raj has an Ed.M. from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Diploma in Secondary Education in Mathematics from McGill University and a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from Dalhousie University in Canada. Raj has lived and worked abroad in Africa (lived in Nigeria and Zanzibar), Asia and North America and is interested in tying quality research to the practice of those in the field and community.

    Donald F. St. Mary.

    Donald F. St. Mary is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Professor St. Mary earned his Ph.D. degree in 1968 on a topic in ordinary differential equations and has published and lectured broadly in that area and the areas of numerical solutions of partial differential equations and applied mathematics. His research was extensively supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. Professor St. Mary served as the Department Head of the Department of Mathematics at the University during the years 1994-2002.
    Professor St. Mary was an enthusiastic teacher of courses throughout the mathematics curriculum - remedial through Ph.D. dissertation direction. He has been extensively involved in minority student teaching and mentoring related activities, for example, designed and taught a two-week course, ``What is Calculus About?'', to sophomore and junior level minority high school students during many summers; taught algebra and trigonometry followed by first-semester calculus to a group of students in an academic support program--Minority Engineering Program; created and organized the Science Enrichment Program at the University of Massachusetts, a 5-week residential program designed to enrich minority high school students' science experiences (1992-1997 - funded by the National Cancer Institute at $3M).
    Professor St. Mary was awarded a "Distinguished Scholar Designee" at the Third Annual Celebration of Black Scholarship in New England, Boston, 1993. He gave the first Mathematical Association of America - National Association of Mathematics David Blackwell Lecture in 1995 following the lecture given by Dr. Blackwell in 1994. Professor St. Mary served for five years on the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering a Congressionally mandated committee of the National Science Foundation. He has served on numerous major committees at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

    Suzanne L. Weekes.

    Professor Weekes earned a B.S., Mathematics from Indiana University, 1989, an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from The University of Michigan, 1990, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Scientific Computing from The University of Michigan, 1995. Her research interests include: Numerical Methods for Wave Motion through Spatio-Temporal Composites, Industrial Mathematics, Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Conservation Laws, Porous Media Flow, Computational Fluid Dynamics, and Numerical Analysis.
    Professor Weekes has been an extraordinarily active and successful mentor, leading groups of undergraduates through her NSF-funded summer Research Experiences towork on real-world mathematics problems that come from finance and industry. Her students have gone on to win national prizes at the annual joint meetings of the Societies. She is a co-organizer of the upcoming workshop, Mathematical Problems in Industry, which is being held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Prof. Weekes is a co-director of MSRI-UP which is a comprehensive program for undergraduates that aims at increasing the number of students from underrepresented groups in mathematics graduate programs; this program is being hosted by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, CA and is supported by the NSA and the NSF.