Welcome to the Association for Women in Mathematics 2021 Elections!
This year, we are electing a President-Elect, a Clerk, and four Members-at-Large of the Executive Committee. The Member-at-Large positions are contested. Please vote.
On or about November 1, 2021, eligible members will receive an email invitation to vote with an electronic ballot link in the email. A ballot is also included on page 10 of the November–December issue of the AWM Newsletter, for those who prefer to vote by mail. A validating signature is required on the envelope if you vote via paper ballot.
- All ballots (electronic and paper) must be received by December 1, 2021!
- Institutional, affiliate, and corporate memberships do not carry voting privileges.
- Those elected will take office on February 1, 2022.
- If you do not receive the email, contact Managing Director Samantha Faria at awm@awm-math.org or 401-455-4042.
Candidate Statements
Click on a candidate’s name below to read to their statement and biographical information.
President-Elect
Statement: Even now, 50 years after the founding of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), our task of achieving equity for all women and girls in mathematics continues to move us forward. We move forward in fixing our leaky career pipeline in mathematics. We move forward in encouraging women and girls that they too have a place in mathematics. We move forward to address the racial divide in the female mathematical community. For it is together, we are reassure of our strength, our hopes, and our passion for making mathematics a better place for everyone.
I would not be the mathematician I am today without others who forced me to see more in myself. In our field, we can become intimidated and unsure of where we stand. Due to underrepresentation in mathematics, our role models appear nonexistent. Through AWM, we stand together. We will stand together and continue building and developing programs that will cultivate spaces where women can grow and flourish. Our work is not easy and will require genuine effort and perseverance. But we all know that our mathematical sisterhood in AWM is unrivaled and is our strength.
I am humbled and honored to join with you to carry out our mission to “encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity and the equal treatment of women and girls in the mathematical sciences.” With your help, we will continue our journey forward in ensuring the participation of everyone to emphasize that our diversity strengthens the entire mathematical community.
Biographical information: Washington is a professor of mathematics at Clark Atlanta University and the inaugural Director of the Atlanta University Center Data Science Initiative. In her role as Director, she oversees and provides strategic direction and coordination of data science education, research, and outreach as well as development and fundraising activities across Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Spelman College, and the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library. Her research interests include the applications of differential equations to problems in biology and engineering, as well as the development of nonstandard finite difference schemes to numerically solve dynamical systems. Washington is a former Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Convergence Accelerator. Previously, as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education, she was instrumental in building and establishing NSF’s first Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, which funded $85M over two years to 56 HSIs. She previously held positions at Howard University, the University of Evansville, The College of New Rochelle, and Duke University. She has a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Spelman College, and Master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of Connecticut. In 2021, Washington became a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the Association for Women in Mathematics, becoming the first person named a Fellow of both of these organizations in the same year.
Clerk
Statement & Biographical information: Alejandra Alvarado is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Eastern Illinois University. Her research interests are in number theory, in particular, elliptic curves. She recently spent three years working for the Navy as a research scientist. She is also committed to the increase and advancement of women and underserved students in the mathematical sciences. She has served on the AWM Meetings Portfolio and MathFest Committees.
Member-at-Large (Vote for up to 4)
Statement: I am beyond honored to be nominated to run for Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee of the AWM! Since my undergraduate days, I have been passionate about making the mathematical sciences an inclusive and equitable field in which to work. The AWM has historically meant so much to those who identify as women studying math, and I believe that there is much potential for the AWM to expand in its outreach and programming. As a queer woman, I want to help the AWM build support for individuals who fall outside the cisgender/heterosexual norms. I want to expand the AWM’s support for transgender and non-binary individuals, making their inclusion more explicit in the AWM. I am also committed to continuing to make the AWM a welcoming place for people of color. One way to achieve these goals can be for the AWM to partner with other professional organizations in the mathematical sciences such as Spectra and the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) to build more cross-organizational events and programming. If elected, I hope to continue my overall goals of making the mathematical science community more inclusive and equitable towards underrepresented groups.
Biographical Information: Kimberly Ayers will be starting at California State University San Marcos in Fall 2021 as an assistant professor. Prior to joining CSUSM, she was an assistant professor at Carroll College and a visiting assistant professor at Pomona College. She holds a PhD from Iowa State University and a BA from Bowdoin College. Her research is in dynamical systems and ergodic theory. She is also passionate about equity and inclusivity work. In 2018 she served on an ad hoc committee assessing the work the AWM has undertaken to become a more diverse and inclusive organization, and making suggestions towards furthering that goal. During her time at Carroll she led a safe zone training for higher administrators, including the deans and the college president, and several faculty, training them on issues LGBTQ+ members of campus were facing. She also currently serves on the AWM Social Media Committee.
Statement: I joined AWM because I fully agree with the purposes of the Association. The underrepresentation of women at the highest levels is an issue across academia, government, and industry. Through the Association, I aim to promote the role of women in mathematics, being attentive to diversity issues, and identify and fight discrimination and abuse of power. I would be honored and proud to work with the AWM, as I would not feel lonely in a world where, most of the times, are in charge men and, often, besides the gender, people whose interests do not reflect the values I grew up with, i.e. honesty, hard work, competence, sacrifice, respect, tolerance, generosity, and solidarity. Finally, a quote I have been living by: “Go into the world and do well. But, more importantly, go into the world and do good.” (Minor Myers, Jr.)
Biographical information: Emma D’Aniello is an associate professor of mathematical analysis at the Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli,” and habilitated as full professor (mathematical analysis) since 2017. She received her PhD from the University of Naples “Federico II” in 1999 and spent the third year of her PhD in the Department of Mathematics of Wesleyan University, Middletown (CT), USA, as Visiting Graduate Student. During the academic year 1996–1997, she was a teaching assistant at Wesleyan University.
Her research interests are in real analysis, dynamical systems, and measure theory. She has published several papers in these fields and has co-organized international meetings on these topics, such as, in 2021, the symposium “Four Days in Linear Dynamics—Linear Dynamics: current trends and open questions” and the symposium “Two Days in Real Analysis—Two full afternoons devoted to real analysis, discrete dynamical systems, measure theory and beyond.” She has given several invited talks, both plenary talks and seminars, in Europe, India, Japan, and the US.
She is a member of the Editorial Board of the mathematical journal The Real Analysis Exchange. She received the “Andy Award” in 2004 (award in honor of Andy Bruckner, one of the top scholars in real analysis).
She has served as Van Vleck Visiting Scholar at the Mathematics Department of Wesleyan University, as Visiting Professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, as well as Visiting Researcher at, among others, Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon, Portugal, and l’Université Paris- Sud, Orsay, France. She has held the Giovanni Prodi Visiting Chair at the University of Würzburg, Germany. She has been involved in national and international research projects, in promoting the interaction between secondary school and university, in the internationalization initiative of her university, in recruiting committees, and in promoting the Erasmus exchange program.
Statement: I’ve had a variety of jobs since finishing my PhD. Being in a “teaching job” did not mean I lost interest in research, being in a “research job” does not mean I lost interest in teaching, and being in industry did not mean that I lost interest in either. At each stage, I have had help from people, particularly women, who listened to me and helped me achieve my goals, even if they were not the goals that were expected. It’s time for me to contribute. I’ve served on AWM’s committee on committees and on its travel grants committee. I see it’s super important for the AWM that it continues and broadens its efforts to diversify. If elected, I plan to listen for what people need, since diversifying means that not everyone is necessarily on the same track, and to see how I can help after listening.
Biographical information: I finished my PhD in 1992 at University of Minnesota. From there, I went to Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. I stayed at SCSU until 1998, when I moved to Germany to work in R&D at a company which produced software for 3-d graphics. I now live in Arizona, where I have been since 2007. I am an associate professor at Arizona State University and my research area is algebraic combinatorics.
Statement: I am honored to be nominated as a candidate for election as Member-at-Large of the AWM Executive Committee. If elected, I will continue my work in supporting, creating, and promoting opportunities, programs, and policies that advance and support historically marginalized, excluded, and underserved people in the mathematical sciences. I will bring to bear my experiences on multitudinous committees to continue the mission of the AWM, particularly in supporting work that creates a more just and equitable community.
Biographical information: Rebecca E. Garcia is a professor of mathematics at Sam Houston State University and Co-Director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Undergraduate Program (MSRI-UP). She is native Chamorro, born and raised in Guam, and, as far as she knows, is the first Chamorro to earn a doctoral degree in pure mathematics. Her research interests are at the intersection of computational and commutative algebra and combinatorics, with contributions in computational algebraic combinatorics, theory of sandpile groups, and dimension theory of partially ordered sets.
Her record of service reflects her love for her community and a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. She is dedicated to growing the community of indigenous mathematicians through mentoring and research program for undergraduates and through collaborative efforts on IndigenousMathematicians.org, a website and community dedicated to spotlighting the journey and mathematical contributions of indigenous mathematicians including Native Americans, Native Alaskans, Native Hawai`ians, and Native Pacific Islanders.
Rebecca is an active member of the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, the Association for Women in Mathematics, and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.
Statement: In March 2021, the AMS Task Force on Understanding and Documenting the Historical Role of the AMS in Racial Discrimination produced a report that describes how professional societies shape the problematic culture of mathematics. One of the key findings in the report is that “[i]mplementing sustainable change is challenging and requires intentionality and continual vigilance.”
Intentionality and vigilance are qualities I hope to bring to the AWM executive committee, joining other members in their commitment to equity and justice in the mathematics community. Some of my recent professional activities in this regard include:
• Summer, 2020: Facilitator for Math Chairs for Racial Justice.
• Fall, 2020: Member of the AWM JMM 2021 Special Task Force, “designed to educate the community around issues of racial bias and/or ethics in research,” at the invitation of the AWM President.
• Winter, 2020–2021: Member of the JMM Organizing Committee for the Equity, Ethics, and Bias in Mathematics panel.
• Spring, 2021: Organizer of Hamilton’s Mathematics and Statistics Department reading group based on Asked and Answered by Dr. Pamela E. Harris and Dr. Aris Winger, creating action plans advocating for students of color.
• Summer, 2021: Organizer for Math Leaders for Racial Justice, an upcoming reboot of Math Chairs for Racial Justice with more formal structure.
The AWM, like any organization, inevitably has policies and practices that get in the way of its commitments to diversity and inclusion. I want to do my share of the work to find and change those policies and practices. Working for change means occasionally making mistakes; I am committed to poking and prodding to help the AWM realize its most noble goals—even if it means putting my foot in my mouth in public (though hopefully not too often).
Biographical information: Courtney Gibbons is an associate professor of mathematics at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY. She received her BA in mathematics from Colorado College and her MS and PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her dissertation work was in commutative homological algebra. She continues to explore this area while developing secondary research interests in algebraic statistics and other applications of algebra. While working at Hamilton, she taught a course in a nearby men’s medium-security prison and looks forward to returning post-pandemic.
As a professor at a small liberal arts college, Courtney works with colleagues from many disciplines in many capacities. She has spent several years on the college’s Committee on Academic Policy, which she will chair next year as the committee implements recommendations from the President’s DEI Advisory Council.
Courtney recently completed a three-year term on the AWM’s Policy and Advocacy Committee, serving as chair for most of the 2020–2021 term. In her year as chair, the committee authored roughly a dozen responses and endorsements.
Statement: I am always pleased to have the opportunity to serve the Association for Women in Mathematics. The AWM’s mission seeks to promote and encourage women in the mathematical sciences. I was the beneficiary of such efforts when I was named the AWM’s 9th annual Alice T. Schafer prize winner. That honor undoubtedly had a tremendously positive impact on my career.
Since then I have witnessed the AWM’s positive impact on the mathematical community in numerous forms including through recognition of mathematicians, scientific programming, community and professional development, political engagement and grant funding. The work taken up by this organization is extremely challenging and fundamentally necessary. I have held positions for the AWM and at my home institutions in the service of promoting women in mathematics and STEM. It would be a privilege to continue contributing to the AWM’s mission as a Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee.
Biographical information: Caroline J. Klivans received a BA degree in mathematics from Cornell University and a PhD in applied mathematics from MIT. Currently, she is an associate professor in the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University. She is also currently a Deputy Director at ICERM, the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics. Before coming to Brown she held positions at MSRI, Cornell and the University of Chicago.
Klivans’ research is in algebraic, geometric and topological combinatorics. She is the author of the book The Mathematics of Chip-Firing (CRC Press publications). She serves on the editorial board of Algebraic Combinatorics and has organized and chaired various scientific conferences including the international conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC) and American Mathematical Society special sessions. She currently serves as chair of the AMS David P. Robbins prize committee.
Klivans is the 9th annual AWM Alice T. Schafer prize winner. She has previously served on the Schafer prize committee and currently serves on the AWM policy and advocacy committee.
Statement: I am honored to be nominated for the AWM Executive Committee as Member-at-Large. As a first-generation college student, much of my success is owed to the mentorship by women in mathematics, many of whom are a part of the AWM. Much of my own values align with the AWM mission statement. As a mathematician, I seek opportunities to promote mathematics and the mathematical community to women and underrepresented minorities through research opportunities and mentorship and to girls through co-organizing the annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day event at my institution. If elected, I will continue to promote AWM’s mission and efforts for a more equitable and inclusive community by bringing my experiences and expertise to the organization.
Biographical information: Shanise Walker is an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (UWEC). Her research interests lie in combinatorics where she studies extremal combinatorics and graph partitioning problems. She earned her BS in mathematics from the University of Georgia and her PhD from Iowa State University. Upon graduating from Iowa State University, she was a Project NExT Fellow for the 2018–2019 year. At UWEC, Walker co-organizes the annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day event for middle and high school girls and has served on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan Committee. She is also on the editorial board for the Mathematical Association of America Math Values Blog, which highlights diversity, inclusion, and community in mathematics.