About Me

I was born in Bucharest, Romania, and came to the United States as a political refugee and immigrant when I was still in high-school.  I am a naturalized U.S. citizen.  I identify as a White, cis-gender woman. Although in school I always excelled in mathematics and STEM, as a young immigrant to the U.S., I spent many years feeling isolated and yearning to be valued or even accepted by my new community. These experiences have deeply impacted who I am and what I strive to change in the bigger educational community. In particular, I am aware of the need to diversify and change the culture of many of our STEM programs. This culture has left many groups on the outside. There are great inequities in our traditional educational practices and much of my work in the last decade, both in the classroom as a teacher, and within the STEM community have been devoted to addressing these failures.

Outside Academia

I enjoy hiking, running, reading and theater. Two of my favorite plays are Copenhagen by Michael Fray and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. I like coffee. 

Inside Academia

I am currently a senior lecturer in the department of Mathematical Sciences at Smith College, after retiring from a long term position of professor of mathematics and chair of mathematics at Holyoke Community College (HCC). I am a STEM educator, researcher and consultant. In 2016 I was awarded the Elaine Marieb Faculty Chair for Teaching Excellence Award at HCC. My interests include STEM education, implications for diversity and inclusion in STEM spaces, promoting, researching and advancing culturally responsive teaching and mentoring. I am also passionate about mathematics and promoting teaching with inquiry.

During my career, I have worked on several NSF initiatives, including two notable S-STEM grants. Of these, the current grant, STEM Cohorts for Research and Engagement (SCoRE), NSF # 2030890, focuses on embedding culturally responsive practices in program interventions. I have designed and facilitated workshops focused on culturally responsive pedagogy and mentoring specifically designed for STEM faculty and STEM programs. 

Within the region, I am one of the founders of the New England Community for Mathematics Inquiry in Teaching, NE-COMMIT, a community of more than 200 college and K-12 mathematics educators from New England advocating for active and inquiry oriented teaching. 

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Statement

I stand against systemic racism, bigotry, and hatred of any kind.  I recognize that Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color, women, and other traditionally underrepresented groups have been continually affected by social injustice, institutional racism, systemic disregard for life or humanity, and inequities within and outside the STEM community.  I recognize that there are also great inequities within our traditional educational practices, which I am  committed to rectify.

• I commit to address systemic racism, bigotry and other inequities inside and outside the STEM classroom. 

• I commit myself to educating ourselves about my biases and practices, and to evaluating my STEM teaching so my classrooms are safe, and so my student experiences are valued. This commitment includes looking at educational materials I use and helping to frame an inclusive vision of all STEM professionals, whatever their background.

• I commit myself to social justice and equity and to prioritizing diversity in all my work.

• I commit myself ourselves to anti-racism work, to educating ourselves about our biases and practices, and to reinvent my STEM teaching so my classrooms are safe, experiences valued, and all students empowered.

• I commit myself to not only increasing diversity but to also examine the methods through which I evaluate our students to draw on diverse educational practices.

• I commit myself  to implement culturally responsive mentoring with my STEM community through our classrooms, programs, and scholarship.

• I commit myself to find ways to continually support BIPOC and other marginalized students through grants and scholarships.

• I commit myself to support our BIPOC colleagues and students by standing in solidarity with them against injustice.

• I commit myself to encourage those who share this commitment to join me.

• I commit myself  to speak out against injustice and to work within my spheres of influence to dismantle injustice, racism and bigotry. 

Education and Awards

Ph. D.  Mathematics, Science and Learning Technologies
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst

M.S.  Mathematics
- Yale University

Doctoral Candidate Mathematics; A.B.D.
- Yale University.
- Equivariant Casson Invariant of 3- Manifolds with Group Action

B.S.  Mathematics with Honors
- Stanford University: Homological Invariants of Finite Coverings of Links. (honors thesis)

NSF-GRFP Fellowship

American Women in Mathematics Honorable Mention

Elaine Marieb Chair for Faculty Excellence, 2016-2017

Appointments and College Services

Smith College, MA (current)

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Senior Lecturer, Mathematics

• Calculus II Coordinator

• Calculus Training Groups Co-coordinator

• Science Center Committee on Diversity

• 100-Level Course Committee

Holyoke Community College, MA (1998 - 2024)

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Division

Department of Mathematics

Professor of Mathematics

Holyoke, MA, USA

• Mathematics Professor: Calculus I, II, III, Linear Algebra, Discrete Mathematics, Differential Equations, Liberal Arts Mathematics, Statistics, Intro to Proof.

• Chairperson: Department of Mathematics, 2016 -present

• Chairperson: Department of Engineering, 2005–2016

• Integrative Learning Committee Member, 2004–present. 

• Honors Program Committee Member, 2007-present 

• Math Department Representative to the Math Center, 2003, 2004

• Professional Development Committee, 1998

• College Senate, 2001–2004

• Scholarship Reviewer for HCC Foundation, 2014-present

• Co-creator of Yadu Sharma Scholarship for HCC STEM students, endowed 2003

• Engineering Club Advisor, 2003–2015

• PI, NSF S–STEM HCC STEM Scholars’ Program (# 1458613), 2015-2020

• PI, NSF S–STEM SCoRE: STEM Cohorts for Research and Engagement: STEM Scholars 2.0

(# 203890), 2020-2025

• NSF HDR DSC: Collaborative Research: The DSC WAV (# 1923012), 2019-2022, co-PI

• MassTeach: NSF Grant to get more students in K-12 teaching in STEM

• Search committees

Other Selected Appointments

Smith College (2019 - 2024)
PT Lecturer, Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
Northampton, MA

University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2015 - 2023)
PT Lecturer, Mathematics and Education
Math Department and College of Education
Amherst, MA

University of Massachusetts Amherst (2010 - 2017)
Research Assistant
Amherst, MA

• Research assistant:   Scientific Reasoning Research Institute

• Research assistant:  Microgenetic Learning Analytics

• Research assistant:  NSF NOYCE Project 

Quinnipiac University (1995 - 1998)
Lecturer, Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
Hamden. CT

Gateway Community–Technical College (1995 - 1998)
Lecturer, Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
New Haven, CT

Yale University (1991 - 1995)
Graduate Student Teaching
Department of Mathematics
New Haven, CT

Skills

Computer Skills

Dynamic learning technology: GeoGebra, Desmos

Mathematics: MatLab, Graphing Calculator, LaTeX, R

Learning management systems: Moodle, MyMathLab, WebAssign, WebWork  

Operation systems: Windows

Office software: Microsoft Office, Google Office 

Language Skills

English

Romanian

French (basic)

Professional Association Memberships

American Mathematical Society (AMS)
- 1991 - 2019

Mathematical Association of American (MAA)
- 2015 - Present

National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM)
- 2013 - Present