PME Candidates for Office

2011 Election Candidates

Candidates for Councilor (four open positions)
$edwards$ Stephanie Edwards	Stephanie Edwards is an associate professor at Hope College in Holland, MI. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with research interests in Complex Analysis. Her interest in Pi Mu Epsilon began her first year in college when she was inducted into the Ohio Delta chapter at Miami University. Over the next four years she served as Vice-President and President of her chapter. As a student, she particularly enjoyed traveling to conferences with other students to give talks, and she currently works to provide her students with similar opportunities. Stephanie has served as Math Club Advisor and PME advisor for over eight years, at both Hope College and the University of Dayton. She has also served on the executive committee of the Ohio MAA as the chair of the Committee on Students Members. This committee organized competitions, Integration Bees, and other social events for students at the Ohio sectional MAA meetings. She is passionate about creating community among the undergraduate students and has organized such events as Integration Bees, Integration Confrontation, Math Jeopardy, Math games night, and conferences. In addition, Stephanie has organized students trips to conferences such as MathFest and the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics where her students have presented their research. She has supervised twelve research students at Hope’s REU program.
$John Frohliger$ John Frohlinger	John Frohliger is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at St. Norbert College. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1983. In 1994, he received the College’s award for teaching excellence. His administrative duties have included serving as the Chair Elect, Chair, and Past Chair of the Wisconsin Section of the MAA (1997-2000) and as St. Norbert College’s Associate Dean of the Natural Science Division (2002-2007). Currently, he is the Principal Investigator for the College’s Natural Science PRIDE program, an NSF-funded scholarship program for mathematics and computer science majors.John is a charter member of the Wisconsin Delta chapter of PME. He enjoys exposing undergraduates to mathematics outside the classroom. Since 1994, he has been the editor for the in-house St. Norbert College Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics. He has been invited to speak to the Madison Area Technical College’s Math Club on six separate occasions. Since 2005, he has worked with students on six undergraduate research projects that led posters at the College’s annual Celebration of Student and Faculty/Staff Collaborations or presentations at regional or national conferences. “Honey, Where Shall We Sit?” a paper he co-authored with a student, appeared in the December 2005 issue of Mathematics Magazine
$Michelle Ghrist$ Michelle Ghrist	Michelle Ghrist is an associate professor of mathematics at the U.S. Air Force Academy. She was inducted into the Ohio Gamma Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon as an undergraduate and served as the chapter advisor of the Colorado Gamma Chapter for seven years until her recent sabbatical, where she is currently spending a year supporting Air Force Space Command. Her personal research interests are numerical methods for differential equations and issues in undergraduate and secondary mathematics education; she also has a strong interest in applying mathematics to many diverse scientific and humanistic fields. Michelle is also actively involved in the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions; she has served on the AMC Advisory Panel since 2003 and has been a member of the MAA's AMC10/AMC12 Subcommittee since 2007. Michelle has mentored many undergraduate students who have presented at MathFest through the years and in 2008 was named the first winner of the PME Faculty Advisor Award. She strongly supports PME's goal to promote mathematics at the undergraduate level and is excited about the possibility of deepening her commitment to PME through being a Councillor.
$Jacqueline Jensen$ Jacqueline Jensen	Jacqueline Jensen is completing her first three-year term as a Pi Mu Epsilon Councillor. She has taught at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) in Huntsville, Texas since 2002, and is spending the 2010-2011 academic year on leave at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. During her time at SHSU, she reactivated the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) student chapter while encouraging more than 70 students to attend and present at the MAA Section Meetings, MathFest and the Joint Mathematics Meetings. She also founded the Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference which, for its sixth year, brought together approximately 130 students to present talks, participate in panel discussions, and see presentations by well-known invited speakers. Jackie’s successes were recognized by the MAA in 2008 when she won a Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member. Jackie is enjoying her service as a PME Councilor, and is proud of creating the semi-annual newsletter for this organization (which appears on the website in the spring and the fall). She hopes to be able to continue in this role and to have a chance to find other ways to contribute to Pi Mu Epsilon and to undergraduates’ involvement in the mathematical community in a second term as a PME Councillor.
$Gretchen Koch$ Gretchen A. Koch	Gretchen A. Koch is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Goucher College. Gretchen received her B.S. in Mathematics from St. Lawrence University, where she was inducted into the local chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon. She went on to receive her M.S. in Applied Mathematics and her Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Since arriving at Goucher in 2005, Gretchen has been the chapter advisor for the Maryland Theta Chapter. She established the Problem of the Month contest and was instrumental in getting PME and the Mathematics and Computer Science (MaCS) Club to seek and receive joint funding from the Student Government Association. In addition to her advising duties, Gretchen organizes her department's annual Torrey Dinner, a formal dinner celebrating student accomplishments that is sponsored by PME and MaCS. She has also organized numerous panels and co-organized a MAA sectional meeting. Gretchen involves students in her biomathematical research program and has had the good fortune of having three of her four students receive prizes for talks given in the Pi Mu Epsilon Contributed Talks at MathFest. Gretchen very much looks forward to continuing to serve Pi Mu Epsilon.
Colin Starr	Colin Starr is an Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics at Willamette University, his home-away-from-home since 2003. He was an undergraduate double major in math and physics at Linfield College and earned his MS and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Kentucky in 1995 and 1998, respectively. He is a co-PI on the Willamette Valley Mathematics Consortium, an REU-RET joining four Willamette Valley colleges. He loves working with students and, in addition to several mathematics research projects with undergraduates, serves as the advisor to the Oregon Zeta chapter of PME, the Willamette University Math Club, the Putnam Exam team, and the Willamette University Racquetball Club. His research interests are in algebra, graph theory, and matroid theory, and he serves as a "Content Expert" for various K-12 educational entities. He would enjoy the opportunity to serve PME.
Candidates for Office
$David Sutherland$ David Sutherland	For Past President: David C. Sutherland is Associate Provost and Professor of Mathematics at Hendrix College in Arkansas. He received a B.A. Degree from Hendrix College and an M.A. and Ph.D. From North Texas State University. His area of specialty is combinatorics. As an undergraduate student he served as President of the Arkansas Beta Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon. He had an undergraduate paper published in the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal and he made a presentation at a summer Pi Mu Epsilon meeting where he met and became friends with Dr. J. Sutherland Frame, a Pi Mu Epsilon legend. As a faculty member he has served as advisor for the Tennessee Gamma and the Arkansas Beta chapters. He has been the faculty advisor for seven student publications in the PME Journal; four of those papers received Andree Awards. He has served on the Pi Mu Epsilon Council since the spring of 2001 where he has served as webmaster. He is currently completing a term as President.
$Angela Spalsbury$ Angela Spalsbury	For President-Elect: Angela Spalsbury is an Associate Professor at Youngstown State University (YSU) in Youngstown, Ohio. She has now served two terms as a Councillor for Pi Mu Epsilon with her primary responsibility the scheduling of the student talks at Mathfest as well as the design and printing of the student program booklet for Mathfest. Angela has had over 15 years experience with Pi Mu Epsilon both as a student and a faculty advisor. She is currently advisor to one of the most dynamic PME chapters in the country. In addition to weekly meetings, mathematical talks, fund-raising, and various social events, the students in the YSU PME chapter host an undergraduate PME conference, bringing over 100 mathematics majors to campus. These students also enthusiastically participate in Mathfest, usually driven there by Angela. She received her BS degree from Kent State University, where she was president of PME as an undergraduate. She received her MSc degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and then returned to the United State to complete her PhD at Kent State University. She considers herself very lucky to work with such an energetic group of students!
$Eve Torrence$ Eve Torrence	For President: Eve Torrence is a Professor of Mathematics at Randolph-Macon College. She received a B.A. in mathematics and philosophy from Tufts University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. She is completing her three year term as President-Elect. In 1996 Eve helped five students establish the Virginia Iota chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon at R-MC. Virginia Iota chapter members have presented research talks at regional MAA meetings and at MathFest. Several R-MC students have won awards for their presentations from the MD-DC-VA Section of the MAA, and two students won the outstanding designation for their entry to the COMAP MathServe contest. Randolph-Macon students have published articles in the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal, Math Horizons, and the UMAP Journal. Eve is also actively involved in the MAA and has served as Chair of the Maryland-DC-Virginia Section. She won a 2007 Trevor Evans award for an article in Math Horizons. Eve is currently writing a "Cut and Assemble" book of stellations of the icosahedron, which will be published by Dover in fall 2011.
$Brigitte Servatius$ Brigitte Servatius	For Journal Editor: Brigitte Servatius holds Masters'degrees in mathematics and Physics from the Karl Franzens University, Graz, Austria and a Ph. D. degree in mathematics from Syracuse University. Her main areas of research are discrete mathematics (rigidity matroids), combinatorial group theory and discrete geometry. Since her sabbatical year in Slovenia in 2003/2004 she is working on a book on geometric configurations. She has written and edited books and classroom materials for a wide range of educational levels from "Bracing of Grids" for high school students to "Matroid Theory" on the research level. She has been on the editorial board of the College Mathematics Journal and editor of The PME Journal since 1999.
$Paul Fishback$ Paul Fishback	For Secretary-Treasurer: Paul Fishback is a Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Michigan and is completing his second term as councillor. He received his A.B. from Hamilton College and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his research interests have encompassed several areas. Paul has collaborated with undergraduate students on several projects, which have led to publications in the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal, Mathematics Magazine, Fractals, and the Real Analysis Exchange. In addition to serving as the founding faculty advisor of the Michigan Iota Section of PME, Paul co-founded the Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, which has been held annually at various schools in Michigan for the past 13 year. His textbook, Linear and Nonlinear Programming with Maple: An Interactive, Applications-Based Approach, was published in 2010, and he is a recipient of the GVSU Alumni Association's Outstanding Educator Award. During his second term as councillor he served as webmaster and, since June 2010, performed several duties of the Secretary-Treasurer. He looks forward to serving in this office if given the opportunity to do so.