BS, PhD, University of Georgia
“In a sense, teaching and learning mathematics is most akin to teaching and learning remarkable literature written in a foreign language. In our case, that language is an intimidating shell of terminology and notation, developed to avoid logical pitfalls and counterintuitive traps. In my experience as an instructor, when a student struggles in mathematics, be it from an early age or with advanced material, it is this shell with which they are truly struggling, and which injects the student with ‘math anxiety’ and an unfounded sense of intellectual shortcoming. I see the task of breaking through the shell, together with exposing the clarity and beauty beneath the surface, as the crux of my job, and I take a great deal of pride in the success that I have had.
“Prior to my arrival at Millsaps, I taught a wide variety of courses at a wide variety of colleges, including over twenty precalculus and calculus courses, all the way up to courses in my specialty areas of number theory and combinatorics that touched on graduate level topics, with lots in between. I am super excited to be back in a liberal arts environment and back in the South, and I see Millsaps as my ideal permanent home for a tremendously rewarding career.”
