Additional Resources for Breakouts
Health Equity Speaker Series – Racial Microaggressions in Academic Spaces: Scope & Impact presented by Monnica Williams Website | Video
Nerds? Or Nuts? Pop Culture Portrayals of Mathematicians, Etc., A Review of General Semantics, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Summer 2001), pp. 172-178 (7 pages) Article
Popular Cultural Portrayals of Those Who Do Mathematics, Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal, Issue 27, Article 7, Winter 1-1-2004 Article
Programs and Fellowships
National Security Agency handout
EDGE Summer Program, a four-week program designed to help women succeed in math graduate school
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships: The application opens in late July and early August of each year. Read “Merit Review Criteria” carefully as the applications shall be reviewed under those criteria. Also, please check out helpful “Tips” for application preparation.
Careers BrochureNetworking Dinner - Table Host Assignments
| Table # | Host | Host Biography |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Dr. Deanna Haunsperger is a professor of mathematics at Carleton College in Minnesota. Since her own undergraduate days, Deanna has been interested in increasing the number and diversity of students who pursue advanced degrees in mathematics. That passion has guided her as a former co-editor for Math Horizons (the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)’s magazine for undergraduates) and as co-founder and co-director of Carleton’s Summer Mathematics Program for Women, a successful, intensive four-week summer program to encourage talented undergraduate women to pursue advanced degrees in the mathematical sciences. She has chaired the MAA’s Strategic Planning Committee on Students and the Council on Outreach, and she recently served as President of the MAA. Currently Deanna is the Editor of the MAA’s blog site, Math Values (mathvalues.org). Deanna is married to fellow mathematician Steve Kennedy, and together they have two grown children. |
| 2 |
|
Judy Walker, Aaron Douglas Professor of Mathematics and Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty and Academic Affairs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is one of the original co-founders of the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics and chaired or co-chaired the organizing committee for many years. Her work has been recognized with the Haimo Award from the Mathematical Association of America, the Louise Hay Award from the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), and the Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Walker is a Fellow of the AWM, the American Mathematical Society (AMS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has previously served on the AWM Executive Committee and the AMS Council, and currently serves on the AMS Board of Trustees. She co-leads Nebraska’s involvement in the IChange project of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, which seeks to diversify STEM faculty nationally. Walker earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and her master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. Her research is in algebraic coding theory. |
| 3 |
|
Talithia Williams, associate professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, develops statistical models that emphasize the spatial and temporal structure of data, and applies them to problems in the environment. She has partnered with the World Health Organization in developing a cataract model used to predict the cataract surgical rate for countries in Africa. Her research interests also include nonstationary covariance estimation and change-of-support problem. Williams takes sophisticated numerical concepts and makes them understandable and relatable to everyone. As illustrated in her popular TedTalk, “Own Your Body’s Data,” she demystifies the mathematical process in amusing and insightful ways, using statistics as a way of seeing the world in a new light and transforming our future through the bold new possibilities inherent in the STEM fields. Williams has made it her life’s work to get people more excited about the possibilities inherent in a STEM education. Williams is currently cohost of the PBS series NOVA Wonders. Williams received her B.S. in mathematics from Spelman College, master’s degrees in both mathematics from Howard University and statistics from Rice University, and a Ph.D. in statistics from Rice University. Her professional experiences include research appointments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the National Security Agency, and NASA. Williams is the author of the 2018 book “Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics.” |
| 4 |
|
Dr. Jessica De Silva is an assistant professor of mathematics at California State University, Stanislaus. Jessica grew up in small, dairy farm town and went to college near home at CSU Stanislaus. She had the opportunity to attend NCUWM twice as an undergraduate and was inspired by the many women mathematicians she met there. This inspiration motivated Jessica to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). At UNL, Jessica began her research program in extremal graph theory, found a passion for teaching, and even served on the NCUWM organizing committee. Now that she is back at her undergraduate institution as a faculty member, Jessica is able to conduct research and organize conferences and events alongside her students. |
| 5 |
|
Dr. Sam Erwin is a data scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the Applied AI Systems Group. Her work focuses on leveraging disparate data sets with a One Health approach for national biopreparedness applications. Sam has led teams to develop data analysis pipelines that integrate natural language processing, graphical models, machine learning, and statistical analysis. She graduated from Virginia Tech with a M.S. and Ph.D. in mathematics and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. | 6 |
|
Angelica Gonzalez attended NCUWM as an undergraduate and is very excited to be back. She is a mathematician and data scientist with industry experience doing data analysis, data visualization, mathematical modeling, and algorithm development. She earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Arizona and is currently a data scientist at McGraw Hill. |
| 7 |
|
Dr. Raegan Higgins is excited to participate in the 25th NCUWM. An alumna of UNL, she served as a graduate student representative on the conference organizing committee. While an undergraduate at Xavier University of Louisiana, Dr. Higgins attended this conference in 2001 as a presenter. While her current research focuses on developing time scale models for intermittent androgen deprivation therapy, she has a keen interest in increasing the number of women, especially those underrepresented, in STEM and improving the undergraduate preparation of mathematics majors. Nationally, Raegan is a recipient of the 2022 Association for Women in Mathematics’ Presidential Recognition Award for her work as a co-founder of the website Mathematically Gifted and Black and a co-director of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Program, which is a Presidential Award for STEM Mentoring recipient. |
| 8 |
|
Emily Price is a Staff Technical Product Manager at Singularity6, focused on infrastructure for the upcoming game Palia. Since earning her MS in Mathematics at UNL in 2007, she’s made a tour of the tech industry in both Engineering & Product roles at Riot Games, Microsoft, Google, and Twitter. This will be her 5th time attending the NCUWM conference. For fun, she enjoys playing violin and hanging out with her two kids. |
| 9 |
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After 16 years as a math-ematics professor, including at Colorado College, Amelia Taylor competed for, and completed, the Insight Data Science Fellows Program, a rapid immersion training where she created a data product in four weeks. She rose through the data science ranks to the Staff level at Zymergen, where she created end-to-end data products in collaboration with scientists and robots. In 2022 she joined Shopify as a staff data scientist developing data products focused on back office logistics (e.g,. order routing and fulfillment) and is currently solving challenges with complex experiments. |
| 10 |
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Dr. Stephanie Vance enjoys working on interdisciplinary problems with potential national security implications. In her current position she leads an office performing statistics and machine learning research. Prior to her career with the Department of Defense, Dr. Vance was a faculty member at Adams State University. |
| 11 |
|
Caitlin Berry is a fourth-year graduate student in the applied mathematics department at the University of Colorado-Boulder working with advisor William Kleiber. She earned a B.S. in mathematics at the University of Arizona and an M.A. in secondary mathematics education from the City University of New York-City College. Caitlin taught mathematics for several years at the K-12 and university level before beginning her graduate studies at CU-Boulder. She has research appointments with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, CO and the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, CO. Her current research focuses on high frequency time series analysis and modeling with applications to areas such as solar irradiance, cryptocurrency, and atomic clock data. Outside of academic pursuits, she enjoys trail running, swimming, and biking in the great Colorado outdoors and cooking delicious food with her husband. |
| 12 |
|
Molly Creagar is a fourth-year graduate student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow studying mathematical ecology under Richard Rebarber and Brigitte Tenhumberg. She earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics with a minor in STEM education at the University of San Francisco before coming to UNL. Outside of math, Molly enjoys spending time with her cat, running, and doing things outside. |
| 13 |
|
Allison Cruikshank is a second-year math Ph.D. student at Duke University pursuing mathematical biology. She went to UNL for undergrad and attended this conference in her junior and senior year. She plans to go into industry after receiving her Ph.D. to work at a pharmaceutical company. |
| 14 |
|
Anna Johnsen is a second-year graduate student at Georgia State University researching combinatorial design theory and structural graph theory under the co-direction of Dr. Guantao Chen (from Georgia State University) and Dr. Amin Bahmanian (from Illinois State University). She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Colorado Denver in 2016 and her master’s degree in mathematics from Illinois State University in 2021. When not exploring the world of mathematics, she enjoys reading, language learning, and hiking. |
| 15 |
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Sue Parkinson is a third-year Ph.D. student in computational and applied mathematics at the University of Chicago. Her research interests have included the role of depth in the performance of neural networks, binary matrix factorizations with applications in statistical genetics, and numerical root-finding. Her research is supported by an NSF GRFP fellowship. She graduated from Brigham Young University in 2020 with a major in mathematics and a minor in Latin American studies, and she attended NCUWM as an undergraduate in 2019. Sue also enjoys singing and performs with the Chicago Chorale. |
| 16 |
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Amethyst Price is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at UC Santa Cruz. She received her associate’s degree from Front Range Community College, and a bachelor’s from Colorado State University in her hometown of Fort Collins, CO. Her research involves number theory and geometric group theory. Amethyst also loves algebraic topology and linear algebra. When she is not doing math, Amethyst enjoys playing video games, snowboarding, doing art, and hanging out with her cats. |
| 17 |
|
Petronela Radu is Olson Professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics. She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Al. I. Cuza University in Romania and her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. She conducts research in Partial Integro-Differential Equations, which describe phenomena in a variety of fields: continuum mechanics, biology, and image processing. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, The Simons Foundation, The Fulbright Foundation, and the Department of Energy. She enjoys hiking, skiing, playing squash, snorkeling, and playing board games with friends and her family, which includes three children and her husband, Mikil Foss, who is also a professor in the Department of Mathematics at UNL. |
| 18 |
|
Kaitlin Tademy (she/her) is a fifth-year Ph.D. student studying virtual knot theory with Mark Brittenham. She earned her B.S. in mathematics at Sam Houston State University in 2018. While her studies are in topology, she is passionate about math education, specifically creating welcoming and inclusive learning communities and joyful experiences in math. Outside of math, Kaitlin enjoys writing poetry, listening to music, spending quality time with friends, and having a cute little drinky drink. |
| 19 |
|
Kirsten Morris is a second-year graduate student and Graduate Fellow for STEM Diversity studying coding theory under Dr. Christine Kelley. Prior to coming to UNL, she earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Georgia College & State University and a Master of Arts in mathematics from the University of Georgia. She also spent two years working in data analysis positions with AmeriCorps. Outside of work she enjoys traveling to new places and hiking. |
| 20 |
|
Ana Wright is a sixth-year graduate student at UNL working in topology, specifically knot theory. She expects to graduate with her Ph.D. in May 2023. She enjoys teaching and as a graduate student she has taught a wide variety of math courses from College Algebra to Linear Algebra. She also enjoys speaking Spanish and co-founded Matemáticas en español, a Spanish-language math seminar at UNL. When she is not doing math, she likes watching movies, playing games, and taking care of her many houseplants. |
| 21 |
|
Dr. Chris Schafhauser graduated with his Ph.D. in mathematics from UNL in 2015 and joined the UNL faculty in 2019 as an established leader in operator algebras. He previously completed postdocs at the University of Waterloo and York University in Toronto. As a York Science Fellow, he was supported by the Simons Foundation, and he also ran a seminar course on the classification theory of C*-algebras at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences. Schafhauser’s work is in a branch of functional analysis that deals with the structure and classification theory of C*-algebras and operator K-theory. This is his first year on the organizing committee. |
| 22 |
|
Tom Marley is a professor and former chair of the Department of Mathematics. He is also a former member of the NCUWM organizing committee. He has supervised 12 Ph.D. students, seven of whom are women. His research specialization is commutative algebra. |
| 23 |
|
Jessica is a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant in the Department of Statistics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Originally from Andover, Kansas, she earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Kansas Wesleyan University and received her Master of Science in statistics from UNL. Jessica’s research interests include natural language processing and text classification. |
| 23 |
|
Rachel is a Ph.D. student and research assistant in the Department of Statistics. She is originally from Missouri, and she earned bachelor’s degrees from the University of Chicago in Statistics and Anthropology. She is currently researching jury perception of algorithms and demonstrative evidence. |
| 24 |
|
anderplas is an assistant professor in the Statistics Department at UNL, researching the perception of statistical charts and graphs, and applying computer vision and machine learning techniques to image data. She also works with the Center for Statistical Applications in Forensic Evidence at Iowa State University, developing statistical methods for examination of bullets, cartridges, and footwear. |
| 24 |
|
Kimberly Stanke is an assistant professor of Extension with a joint appointment in statistics and 4-H youth development at UNL. Her primary interests are in the scholarship of teaching and learning as it relates to numeracy and data science, with a focus on applications related to health sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in 2021 from UNL in complex biosystems, studying computational biology and brain modeling under Dr. Srivatsan Kidambi in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering with co-advisor Dr. Oleh Khalimonchuk in Biochemistry. She earned a B.S. in computational and applied mathematics and biomedical engineering in 2015 from Michigan Technological University in Houghton. Beyond her love of data science, mathematics, and improving human life, she is a black belt in GSHIM taekwondo and enjoys spending time outdoors near waterfalls and big trees. |
| 25 |
|
Dr. Tenhumberg is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences and the Department of Mathematics. She finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Hannover (Germany) and received her Ph.D. at the University of Göttingen (Germany). Prior to joining UNL, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Canada (Simon Fraser University), and Australia (University of Adelaide, University of Queensland). She uses linear and nonlinear differential equation models and optimization approaches to address questions related to evolution, demography, and population management. |
| 26 |
|
Dr. Lorraine M. Males is the Julie & Henry Bauermeister associate professor in Education and Human Sciences, Mathematics Education in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education at UNL where she coordinates and teaches courses in the undergraduate and masters 6-12 teacher education program and teaches and advises masters and doctoral students. Before earning her Ph.D. in mathematics education at Michigan State University, Lorraine earned a B.S. in mathematics and computer science and a 7-12 mathematics teaching endorsement and taught middle and high school mathematics and computer science in Hawaii, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Her research focuses on supporting the learning of prospective 6-12 mathematics teachers with respect to the intentional use of tools and equitable practices. Her recent projects include her National Science Foundation CAREER project (DRL #1651836) in which she used eye tracking technologies to explore how PSTs learn to use curriculum materails to plan and enact lessons and a collaborative research project with colleagues from two institutions focused on the design and refinement of modules for countering anti-Blackness in undergraduate mathematics teacher preparation. |
| 27 |
|
Amy Rushall has been at Northern Arizona University since 1998. She is a teaching professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and now has an administrative role as assistant vice provost for the NAU Teaching and Learning Center. Her teaching career has had a focus on first-year mathematics and mathematics for the secondary education degree program. Amy also serves of the board of the Arizona Mathematics Leaders and the Arizona Association of Teachers of Mathematics. She has an undergraduate degree in mathematics and secondary education from the University of Tulsa and a Master of Mathematics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. |
| 28 |
|
Rebecca Swanson is a teaching professor at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, where she teaches a variety of fun classes and does research related to teaching and learning. She obtained her Ph.D. from Indiana University and spent a couple of years at Nebraska Wesleyan University as an assistant professor before she took a job at the Colorado School of Mines in 2012. In addition to teaching, Rebecca co-founded the Society for Women in Mathematics at Mines, an AWM chapter, and is involved in a variety of service roles both within and outside of Mines. Rebecca enjoys cooking, baking, running, reading, crossword puzzles, and ‘making’. She and her husband have two young daughters. |
| 29-30 |
|
Faculty Networking |
| 31-32 |
|
Undergraduate Networking |
| 33+ |
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Mixed Networking |