First in the World Maryland Mathematics Reform Initiative Advisory Council Members

Christine Barrow has been a member of the Prince George’s Community College faculty for eighteen years. Prior to serving as dean, she served as Department Chair and Professor. During her tenure at the College, she has been focused on partnerships, innovative programming, and teaching and learning excellence around student engagement, dual enrollment/early college, professional development, research, and open educational resources. She has developed STEM programs and strategies with many partners, including the National Institutes of Health, Lockheed Martin Inc, and many other regional partners Dr. Barrow works to engage students in research and to empower them to make wise educational decisions. She has received several teaching and service awards, including the 2015 President’s Medal, 2009 Faculty Senate Excellence Award, The Daily Record’s Leading Women of 2010, and the National Institute of Staff and Organizational Development Excellence Award in 2015. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Tuskegee University and her Ph.D. at Howard University.

Dr. Joann Boughman, a geneticist with more than 30 years of teaching and administrative experience in higher education, is the senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University System of Maryland (USM). She also is executive vice president of the American Society of Human Genetics and a former vice president for academic affairs and dean of the graduate school, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Dr. Boughman is the senior staff person for the system's Board of Regents Education Policy Committee and Committee on Effectiveness and Efficiency. She also chairs the system-wide Academic Affairs Advisory Council and is the USM liaison on academic issues to the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the state's coordinating board for all segments of higher education.

Nikki Edgecombe is a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center. She conducts research on developmental education, education equity, teaching and learning, English learners, faculty development, minority-serving institutions, and higher education finance, among other topics. She is the principal investigator for the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR), a U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded research center on developmental education jointly run with the social policy research organization MDRC. Edgecombe also leads IES studies on English learners in community colleges and on the adaptation of Lesson Study for community college mathematics instruction. She holds a PhD and a MSEd in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Urban Studies–Economics from Columbia University.

Dr. James D. Fielder is the Secretary of the Maryland Higher Education Commission. In addition to his work in both the public and private sectors, Secretary Fielder has a wealth of experience in the field of higher education, having previously served in positions at Michigan State University, University of Michigan-Flint, and Towson University. In addition, Secretary Fielder holds a doctorate degree in Higher Education Administration from Michigan State University. Secretary Fielder has served under four different Maryland governors from both parties, holding positions as Secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation; Acting Secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development; and Assistant Secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development.

Denny Gulick (with formal name Sidney L. Gulick, 3d) is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Maryland. He graduated from Oberlin College with a major in mathematics and a substantial involvement in the Conservatory of Music. Then he earned an M.A. and PhD in mathematics at Yale University. After a 2-year Instructorship at the University of Pennsylvania he began teaching at the University of Maryland, and rose through the ranks to Full Professor of Mathematics. His field originally was functional analysis, but more recently he has enjoyed teaching mathematical chaos and fractals, and has been involved in issues of education in mathematics at the college level. Several times during his 50-years at the University of Maryland he has been Undergraduate Chair of Mathematics, and has also had the duty of scheduling the courses for the 90 departmental faculty members. He has had several funded projects in mathematics; the most recent is a project to make the all-important junior-senior Advanced Calculus course more successful for math majors. Also, for 8 years he led a one-week summer Maryland Mathematics Institute for local high school teachers. He has authored and co-authored several textbooks, most notably a calculus book (co-authored with Robert Ellis), which is in its 6th edition, and a textbook on chaos and fractals. In 1994 he and Judy Ackerman organized the Statewide Mathematics Group (SMG), which he has led since its inception.

William E. “Brit” Kirwan is chancellor emeritus of the University System of Maryland (USM). He is a nationally recognized authority on critical issues facing higher education. He served as chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM) for 13 years (2002-2015), president of the Ohio State University for four years (1998-2002) and president of the University of Maryland, College Park for 10 years (1988-1998). Prior to his presidency, he was a member of the University of Maryland mathematics faculty for 24 years. Dr. Kirwan is past chair of, among other boards, the American Council for Higher Education, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, the American Association of Colleges & Universities, the Business Higher Education Forum and the National Research Council Board on Higher Education and Workforce. He also served as the co-chair and chair of Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics from 2004 to 2016. Presently, he chairs a Statewide Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, which has been asked to make recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly that would enable Maryland schools to perform at the level of the world’s best school systems. Dr. Kirwan received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Kentucky and his master's and doctoral degrees in mathematics from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Dr. Parente began a full-time appointment at Towson University in 1975, and has maintained that appointment for 41 years. He was licensed as a Psychologist in Maryland in 1981. Dr. Parente's clinical work involves Neurorehabilitation assessment and therapy with traumatic brain injury and stroke survivors and he has published three books and over 35 journal articles on this topic. He received the Outstanding Healthcare Professional award in 1996 from the Governor's Commission on Treatment of Persons with Disabilities and the Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Brain Injury Rehabilitation award from The Medical College of Virginia in 2004, and again in 2008. Dr. Parente teaches Graduate and Undergraduate Statistics, and Research Methodology; as well as Neurorehabilitation and Data Analytics.

Dr. Sadusky began as MACC Executive Director in July 2012, after completing a year of service as interim superintendent at the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), where he filled the position left vacant by the 2011 retirement of Dr. Nancy Grasmick.

Dr. Sadusky served as superintendent of schools in Maryland’s Queen Anne’s County from 1994 to 2007, and spent more than 30 years in the Queen Anne’s school system as an administrator and teacher. He was recognized as Maryland’s Superintendent of the Year in 2007. Following his retirement in Queen Anne’s County, he joined MSDE as policy liaison to the local school systems, before being appointed by the Maryland Board of Education to serve as interim state superintendent in 2011. With this extensive background in K-12 education in Maryland, Dr. Sadusky is recognized as having played an important role in achieving and maintaining Maryland’s status as a top school system in the nation. In his role as the executive director of Maryland’s 16 community colleges, Dr. Sadusky works with the Governor’s P-20 Council to integrate and enhance the alignment of K-12 with Maryland’s postsecondary education and training. Dr. Sadusky received his bachelor’s degree in biology from King’s College in Pennsylvania. He holds a master’s degree in psychology from Washington College and a doctorate in educational administration from Nova-Southeastern University.

Dr. Karen B. Salmon, State Superintendent of Schools became Secretary-Treasurer of the State Board on June 1, 2016 and became State Superintendent of Schools on July 1. Immediately prior to joining MSDE, Dr. Salmon served as Superintendent of Schools on the Bay Shore Union Free School District in Bay Shore, NY. Dr. Salmon spent more than 30 years as an educator on Maryland's Eastern Shore, beginning her career as a special education teacher in the Caroline County Public Schools. She later became a vocational coordinator and an assistant principal in the Caroline schools before moving to Talbot County as Coordinator of Services for Exceptional Children. Dr. Salmon became Assistant Superintendent of the Talbot County schools in 1997 and Superintendent in 2003. Named the Maryland Superintendent of the Year in 2012, Dr. Salmon is the recipient of numerous awards and honors throughout her educational career. Dr. Salmon holds a Ph.D. in Special Education/Administration from the University of Maryland College Park, as well as a Masters in Special Education from the same institution. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from the University of Delaware.

Dr. Nancy Shapiro is the associate vice chancellor for education and outreach at the University System of Maryland. Her work focuses on P–20 STEM education, teacher preparation, and creative ways of reaching state college attainment goals. Her expertise includes K–16 and higher education policy, college readiness, teacher education, school–university partnerships, STEM education policy, and learning communities. As the USM director of PreK–16 partnerships, Dr. Shapiro works with 12 institutions of the University System of Maryland, two-year colleges, and K–12 schools to foster critical partnerships and learning communities to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Maryland. Prior to her work at the University System, she directed the freshman writing program at the University of Maryland and served as the founding director of the College Park Scholars Program, the first interdisciplinary living-learning programs at the University of Maryland. She has extensive experience in undergraduate education reform, including research, teaching and administrative leadership roles in composition and rhetoric, writing across the curriculum, science and mathematics reform initiatives, faculty development, and general education. Dr. Shapiro graduated Phi Beta Kappa, BA in history from Brandeis University, and earned her MAT from the University of Delaware, and PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland.

Philip Uri Treisman is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, professor of mathematics, and professor of public affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the founder and executive director of the Charles A. Dana Center, which works to ensure that all students, regardless of their life circumstances, have access to an excellent education. Uri is active in numerous organizations working to improve American mathematics education. He is a founder and member of the governing board of Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics. He is a representative of the American Mathematical Society to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Education, Section Q) and is a senior advisor to the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences Research Advisory Group. In addition, he a member of the Roundtable of Data Science Post-Secondary Education with of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Uri earned a B.S. in Mathematics, summa cum laude, from the University of California at Los Angeles, after studying horticulture and mathematics in several Los Angeles-area community colleges. He earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied both mathematics and education. Leon Henkin was his doctoral advisor and is the model for his professional career.