Alessandra Pantano wins the Section's 2026 Carol Crawford Teaching Award

Dr. Alessandra Pantano of University of California, Irvine is the winner of our Section's 2026 Carol Crawford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, who "through extraordinary classroom innovation, tireless mentorship, and extensive outreach ... embodies the spirit of this award" as quoted from her nomination.

At UCI, Pantano has contributed to teaching and curriculum development across the undergraduate mathematics program, especially at key transition points: entering the major, learning to write proofs, preparing for secondary mathematics teaching, and engaging in research. She has helped develop courses and curriculum resources that support these transitions, and has contributed to departmental teaching infrastructure through her work with learning assistants and through mentoring graduate students on active-learning teaching practices.

Her outreach programs — the UCI Math Circle, UCI Math CEO, and UCI Math ExpLR — have created opportunities for middle and high school students to engage with mathematics through enrichment activities, mentoring, research experiences, and STEM field trips. These programs and collaborations support regional and national efforts to broaden access to high-quality mathematics enrichment grounded in culturally responsive curriculum, mentor preparation, community-oriented Math Circle practices, and research on informal pedagogy in afterschool STEM programs serving underserved youth.

A central part of Pantano's work has been increasing participation and advancement in mathematics for women and for students from historically marginalized groups at multiple stages of the mathematical pipeline. Her education research includes projects on culturally responsive pedagogy in STEM afterschool programs, teacher noticing in undergraduate mathematics, and strategies to foster engagement and inclusive collaboration in intro-to-proof courses. She has also participated in faculty learning communities focused on promoting inclusive excellence in undergraduate STEM education, including efforts to better understand opportunity gaps, classroom environments, and students' experiences in proof-based courses.

We congratulate Dr. Alessandra Pantano on this award and look forward to her Invited Address at a section meeting this coming year!

Call for Nominations for the 2026 MAA Section Teaching Award

We are now soliciting nominations for the MAA Southern California-Nevada Section's Carol Crawford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching! The SoCal-Nevada Crawford Award honors an outstanding recipient with a monetary prize of $500 (and $100 to the nominator of the winning recipient) contingent upon meeting the eligibility criteria of the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics found on the MAA website as well as listed in the left side column of the section's Teaching Award page.

Recipients of the SoCal-Nevada Crawford Award become eligible for nomination for the national-level MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Therefore, for the SoCal-Nevada Carol Crawford Award, we also follow the same Guidelines for Nomination and Criteria for Evaluation as the Haimo award.

Nomination instructions for the SoCal-Nevada Carol Crawford are found on the left side column of the section's Teaching Award webpage and must be sent to Konrad Aguilar. We also require at least 2 different people to be nominated (not two nominations per person) in order for the SoCal-Nevada Carol Crawford Award to be administered as well as at least one nomination must fulfill the above criteria, where this fulfillment is decided by our award subcommittee.

The deadline for SoCal-Nevada Crawford Award Nominations this year is April 15, 2026 by 11:59pm PST and should be sent to: Konrad Aguilar ( konrad.aguilar@pomona.edu )

Brian P Katz (BK) wins the Section's 2025 Teaching Award

Dr. Brian P Katz (BK) of California State University Long Beach is the winner of the 2025 Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics and our Section's nominee for the national MAA's Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

Quoting from his nomination, "BK is an exceptionally skilled educator whose writing, editorial work, and leadership work has had a tremendous positive impact on the mathematical community – both locally and nationally" and "BK is driven by a conviction that many common teaching practices cause epistemic harm to our students and he has written extensively to the mathematics community with the goal of shifting the norms and expectations for college mathematics classrooms." Moreover, from his work with Inquiry Based Learning and his work in his role as the MAA Project NExT Associate Director as well as his editorial work for PRIMUS among many other contributions, it is an honor to be able to bestow BK this award.

We congratulate BK for this award and look forward to his plenary talk at our 100th anniversary Fall 2025 MAA SoCal/Nev section at California State University Fullerton on October 18, 2025!

Alder Award

The Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member honors beginning college or university faculty whose teaching has been extraordinarily successful and whose effectiveness in teaching undergraduate mathematics is shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms. Read more...

Haimo Award

The Haimo Award Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics honors college or university teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions. Read more...