Northwest Regional Comprehensive Center

Sybilla Beckmann
Sybilla Beckmann is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Georgia. She has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and taught at Yale University as a J. W. Gibbs Instructor of Mathematics. Beckmann has done research in Arithmetic Geometry, but her current main interests are the mathematical education of teachers and mathematics content for students at all levels and especially for PreK through the middle grades. Beckmann developed three mathematics content courses for prospective elementary school teachers at the University of Georgia and wrote a book for such courses, Mathematics for Elementary Teachers, published by Addison-Wesley, now in its second edition. She is especially interested in helping college faculty learn to teach mathematics content courses for elementary and middle grades teachers, and she works with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows toward that end. As part of this effort, Beckmann directs the Mathematicians Educating Future Teachers (MEFT) component of the University of Georgia Mathematics Department's VIGRE II grant.

Beckmann was a member of the writing team of NCTM's Curriculum Focal Points for Pre-kindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics, is a member of the Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics of the National Research Council, and has worked on the development of several state mathematics standards. Recently, Beckmann taught an average 6th grade mathematics class every day at a local public school in order to better understand school mathematics teaching. Beckmann has won several teaching awards, including the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship awarded by the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia.

Douglas H. Clements

Douglas H. Clements is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Education at University of Buffalo, SUNY. He was a member of President Bush's National Math Advisory Panel and the National Academies of Sciences/National Research Council Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics. His primary research interests lie in the areas of the learning and teaching of geometry, computer applications in mathematics education, and the early development of mathematical ideas. He has published over 90 refereed research studies, 6 books, 50 chapters, and 250 additional publications.

Currently, Dr. Clements is principal investigator on a large-scale research project, Scaling Up TRIAD: Teaching Early Mathematics for Understanding with Trajectories and Technologies, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). This funding is part of the Interagency Educational Research Initiative (IERI) program; a federal partnership of the IES, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). This had its roots in a previous IERI project he directed—Scaling Up the Implementation of a Pre-Kindergarten Mathematics Curricula: Teaching for Understanding with Trajectories and Technologies—an IERI project funded by the NSF. In addition, Dr. Clements has directed or co-directed over 15 additional projects funded by IES, NSF, and others; including Building Blocks—Foundations for Mathematical Thinking, Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 2: Research-based Materials Development (http://www.buildingblocks.org), and the National Conference on Standards for Preschool and Kindergarten Mathematics Education (co-funded by NSF and ExxonMobil Foundation, http://www.gse.buffalo.edu/org/conference/index.htm). This conference resulted in the book; Clements, D.H., Sarama, J., & DiBiase, A.M. (Eds.). (2004). Engaging young children in mathematics: Standards for early childhood mathematics education.

Anne M. Collins
Dr. Collins earned her doctorate at Boston College. She has thirty years teaching experience, having taught grade levels K-12 and including vocational-technical mathematics as well as undergraduate and graduate level courses at Boston College University and Lesley University. She has been providing mathematics content professional development institutes and courses for the past 9 years through support from Title IIA and Title IIB grants as well as grants from Raytheon Company and the Noyce Foundation. Dr. Collins is a former Massachusetts Statewide Mathematics Coordinator where she served from 1997-1999.

Dr. Collins is the president of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in New England and the past president of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Massachusetts. She is an active member in the Association of Statewide Supervisors of Mathematics, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics. She is the series editor of NCTM's publication, "Assessment Sampler: Tasks aligned with Principles and Standards of School Mathematics." She is or has served as a mathematics content author for online mathematics projects with CISCO, Raytheon, and the Jason Foundation for Education and Math Resources. She was also a reviewer for NCTM's Focal Points, and Middle School Mathematics Journal.

She was inducted into the Massachusetts Mathematics Educators Hall of Fame in 2005.

Francis (Skip) Fennell
Professor of Education, McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland; and Past President, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Dr. Fennell is a mathematics educator and has experience as a classroom teacher, a principal, and a supervisor of instruction. He is currently Professor of Education at McDaniel College and past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Widely published in professional journals and textbooks related to elementary and middle-grade mathematics education, Dr. Fennell has also authored chapters in yearbooks and resource books published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. In addition, he has played key leadership roles with the Research Council for Mathematics Learning, the National Science Foundation, the United States National Commission for Mathematics Instruction, and the Association for Mathematics Teacher Educators. He was on the writing team of both the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) and the Curriculum Focal Points (NCTM, 2006). Dr. Fennell served as a member of the National Math Panel from May 2006 to April 2008. On April 12, 2008, he completed his 2-year term as President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Dr. Fennell has received numerous honors and awards, including Maryland's Outstanding Mathematics Educator (1990), McDaniel College's Professor of the Year (1997), the Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the CASE - Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year - Maryland (1997). He has also been the principal investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, and the ExxonMobil Foundation. He earned his bachelor's degree from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.

Hung-Hsi Wu
Hung-Hsi Wu is Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a differential geometer by profession. In 1992, he was moved by what he witnessed in mathematics education reform and was determined to initiate change in mathematics education. After 1996, he started to participate in the education process essentially full-time; first as a critic and then as a member of various state and national committees. He probably played a role in changing the practices of professional development in California as well as the attitude of textbook publishers toward textbook writing. His latest project is the improvement of the professional development of teachers, both pre-service and in-service. He has been engaged in in-service work since 2000, and starting in 2006, he has begun working on the pre-service professional development of high school teachers. Wu has written extensively on mathematics education, and his articles can be accessed from his homepage: http://math.berkeley.edu/~wu.