Elizabeth Thoren wins the Section's 2023 Teaching Award

Dr. Elizabeth Thoren of Seaver College of Pepperdine University is the winner of the 2023 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.

Dr. Thoren has over 15 years of experience teaching with inquiry and has been part of the AIBL Workshop Leader Team since 2018 where she has co-developed and co-facilitated both virtual and in-person IBL Workshops. Elizabeth also served as a guest Associate Editor for the PRIMUS special issue on Teaching Inquiry and is currently part of the leadership council for COMMIT-CaN (COMmunities for Mathematics Inquiry in Teaching in California and Nevada).

The MAA Southern California-Nevada Section recognizes Elizabeth as a skilled and effective educator who is deeply committed to building classroom communities, as someone who helps students find joy and creativity in mathematics that they may not have experienced before, as a leader in our regional mathematics communities, and as a passionate and impactful professional developer who loves thinking with other educators about improving our practice. We are honored to present her with the Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

Call for Nominations for the 2023 MAA SoCal-NV Section Teaching Award

submitted by Anne Cawley, Section Vice Chair

Preliminary nominations for the 32nd annual MAA Southern California-Nevada Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics are now being accepted. The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 21, 2022.

Successful nominees are individuals who are widely recognized for their extraordinarily successful teaching effectiveness and for teaching that has had influence beyond their own institutions. To be eligible, nominees must be current MAA members who teach mathematical science courses at least half-time during the academic year and have at least seven years experience teaching at the college or university level. Because the Section Award winner will be forwarded for consideration for the national Haimo award, successful nominees will have an extended record of teaching success. (For greater detail on eligibility requirements, please go to: http://www.maa.org/Awards/Haimo_EGN.pdf.) To honor more junior faculty, please consider nominating them for the MAA Alder Award.

If you have an eligible and qualified colleague in your department, we urge you to nominate them so that they may be considered for the award.  The initial nomination consists of a one-page form (available at http://sections.maa.org/socalnv/PrelimNominationTeachingAward.pdf), together with a one- to two-page description of the candidate's qualities and teaching successes.

From the preliminary nominees, the selection committee (SoCal-NV Section Vice Chair, Chair, Past Chair, and Secretary) will choose two to three semi-finalists. Nominators will then be asked to complete a full nomination packet for the semi-finalists. The full packet will be required only for semi-finalists and will be due by early January of 2023. (Full nomination requirements may be found at http://www.maa.org/Awards/Haimo_NF.pdf.)

Upon receipt of the full nomination, semi-finalists will automatically become finalists. Each finalist will receive an official letter of commendation from the Chair of the Section, which will be copied to the candidate's department chair and dean (or parallel campus leadership). The selection committee will choose the winner from the pool of finalists. Finalists who are not selected will automatically have their full applications considered the following year for the Section award, but nominators are welcome to renominate these candidates.

The recipient of the award will be recognized and given the opportunity to give a talk at a future meeting of the MAA Southern California-Nevada Section. The awardee will also be the official Section nominee for the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

The Preliminary Nomination deadline is Monday, November 21st, 2022.

Submit initial nominations and direct questions to: Anne Cawley at  acawley@cpp.edu

Gail Tang wins the Section's 2022 Teaching Award

Dr. Gail Tang of University of La Verne is the winner of the 2022 Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics and a nominee for the national MAA's 2022 Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

The MAA Southern California-Nevada Section recognizes her as a skilled and effective educator who uses effective and inclusive pedagogies, as someone who empowers students by highlighting opportunities for creativity in mathematics and has made important contributions to the research on creativity, as an accomplished mentor, as someone committed to sharing access to mathematics and her love for it beyond the walls of classrooms, and as someone doing the work of re-envisioning mathematics as a more inclusive human endeavor. We are honored to present her with the Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

More information can be found about Dr. Gail Tang on her University of La Verne page. You can also learn more about her work with the Creativity Research Group.

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...