American Mathematical SocietyEducation and Diversity Department

________

AMS Committee on Education Meeting

October 27, 2017

Helen G. Grundman, Ph.D.Director of Education and Diversity

EducationB.S. in Mathematics and Psychology with Secondary Teaching

Credentials, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1979

Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley, 1989

Dissertation: The arithmetic genus of Hilbert modular threefoldsAdvisor: P. Emery Thomas

Helen G. Grundman, Ph.D.Director of Education and Diversity

Prior Employment:

High School Mathematics Teacher, Harper Woods, Michigan, 1980-83

C.L.E. Moore Instructor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989-91

Assistant, Associate, Full Professor, Chair of Mathematics, Bryn Mawr College, 1991-2016

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, 1994-95

Science Fellow, Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, 1998-99

Program Director, National Science Foundation, 2001-02

The American Mathematical Society

Over 28,000 individual members

560 institutional members

450 mathematician volunteers make upthe leadership and committees

210 staff members in RI, DC, and MI

AMS Mission Statement

To further the interests of mathematical research, scholarship and education, serving the national and international community through publications, meetings, advocacy and other programs.

AMS Strategic Plan 2016-2020 Goals

• Promote mathematical research, its communication and uses• Encourage and promote the transmission of mathematical

understanding and skills• Support mathematical education at all levels• Advance the status of the profession of mathematics,

encouraging and facilitating full participation of all individuals

• Foster an awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines in everyday life

Education and Diversity Department

Seeks to promote diversity and inclusion at all stages of the mathematics “pipeline”

Initial focus on graduate education in the mathematical sciences

Concerns include:

• preparation of students entering graduate school • mentoring of students for success • promotion of diversity and inclusiveness at the graduate

level

Initial Goals of EDD

Informing the mathematical community about the department

Establishing strong connections with other organizations and groups promoting diversity in the mathematics community

Providing support and coherence to ongoing AMS inclusion initiatives

Developing projects that are candidates for external funding

2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings

Association for Women in Mathematics Panel: Mentoring Women in Mathematics

Michelle Manes, Helen G. Grundman, Suzanne Weeks, Emina Soljanin, Kristin Lauter, Deanna Hainsperger,

Photos by Kate Awtrey

2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings

AMS Committee on the Profession Panel: Diversity and Inclusion in the Mathematical Sciences

Carlos Castillo-Chavez, Duane Cooper, Helen G. Grundman, Kristin Lauter, Talithia Williams

Photos by Kate Awtrey

2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings

The Mathematics and Mathematicians Behind Hidden Figures

Margot Lee Shetterly, Dr. Christine Darden, Dr. Ulrica Wilson

Photo by Edray Goins

The Mathematics and Mathematicians Behind Hidden Figures organized by:

AMS Education and Diversity Department

Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)

Building Diversity in Science (BDS)

Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE)

National Association of Mathematicians (NAM)

The Mathematics and Mathematicians Behind Hidden Figures

The event was standing-room only, even after a wall was opened to the adjoining room!

In the post-conference survey, many people cited this panel as a high point of the JMM

Photos by Edray Goins

WATCH-US

Women Achieving through Community Hubs in the US: an NSF-funded 2-year INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot

Goal: Understanding mechanisms that successfully broaden participation of women in the mathematical sciences.

Sociological study of six programs that have collectively served over 5,000 young women

Stake-holders’ meeting to disseminate initial results and develop prototype activities

Mini grants for scalable prototype projects that incorporate attributes found to be effective

A new website with resources for mathematics students, educators, and mentors: https://www.womendomath.org

WATCH-US

IGENInclusive Graduate Education Network:

an NSF-Funded 2-year INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot

Goal: Develop, adopt, and share inclusive practices for recruiting, admitting, and retaining women and underrepresented minorities in physics

The American Physical Society started this project to build on its Bridge Program

Part of the project involves bringing together representatives from other disciplines to study the feasibility of designing similar programs in other disciplines. (More on this, later.)

The APS has teamed with 6 selective physics graduate programs to consider their admissions committee practices

Math Subject GRE Percentiles Corresponding to In-Group Percentiles

In-Group Percentile

Asian White Hispanic

Male Female Male Female Male Female

90 95 65 80 56 65 x

75 87 48.5 60 36 39 x

50 56 28.5 39 17 23.5 x

25 28.5 17 19.5 7.5 9.3 x

10 9 7.5 9 3 4.5 x

NAM Undergraduate MathFest Represented the AMS on a panel about applying to mathematics

graduate school Donated two AMS books that were given as prizes for presentations

Donald King, Helen G. Grundman, Ryan Hynd

Photo by Tony Akeem

Additional Involvement

EDGE Summer Program: Donated funds to support 3 AMS EDGE Scholars

TPSE Math (Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics): Advised on the planning of graduate education portion of their March 2017 conference

Mathematically Gifted and Black Website: Campaigned for its creation

http://mathematicallygiftedandblack.com/

Additional Involvement

Participated in a Providence NAACP event on Hidden Figures

Spectra, the Association for LGBT Mathematicians: Attended their January business meeting by invitation

Historical Black Mathematicians Poster: Helping to make it happen

AWM: Worked together on 2017 Hidden Figures event, WATCH-US, and a possible grant proposal along with EDGE and CaMeW (Career Mentoring for Women in Mathematics)

Ongoing AMS Inclusion Initiatives

EDD now facilitates the AMS Committee on the Profession’s Mathematics Programs that make a Difference Award

Worked with the Development Department in setting up the Mark Green and Kathryn Kert Green Fund for Inclusion and Diversity

EDD now processes contributions to diversity or education programs

Serve as an informal liaison with the AMS Committee on Women in Mathematics

Served as a consultant for staff and volunteers regarding diversity concerns with AMS blogs

Developing projects that are candidates for external funding

NSF INCLUDES Alliance Grant Proposal

AMS, American Physical Society, American Chemical Society

Increase the number of students from underrepresented minorities entering and succeeding in math graduate school

Collective Impact Model – shared goals and metrics

The AMS President has appointed Prof. Richard McGehee to consult with EDD about this project

Some possible components of the proposal

Bridge Programs: Establish bridge experiences for students who show potential, but are underprepared for PhD programs

Application Aggregation: Recruit students without grad school offers; circulate their applications to interested institutions

Inclusive Graduate Practices: Identify, promote, and achieve adoption of inclusive practices in graduate education (Recruitment, Admissions, Induction, Retention)

Student Career Support: Provide information to strong students from underrepresented groups, attracting them to mathematics and its many career options

Advocacy: Conduct activities and build relationships within the community that support changing the disciplinary narrative to one that is more inclusive

Research: Collect data to inform appropriate aspects of the project, and study the ongoing components to determine their efficacy

STEM Inclusion Study

An NSF funded, national study of workplace experiences of STEM students and professionals

Attempt to systematically identify areas that undermine the full inclusion of women, racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ persons, and disabled individuals

Professional organizations that participate receive reports on the make-up and experiences of their membership

We expect to use the results of this study in guiding the future directions of the EDD

Work with other AMS staff to make our programs and services more inclusive

•Mathematics Research Communities

•Who Wants to be a Mathematician? game

Photo by Kate Awtrey

Photo by Wei Wei Chen, MRC 2016

SACNAS’s National Diversity in STEM Conference

The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science

Annual conference attracts around 4,000

Student mentoring

Coaching in presenting research

AMS contributes money to support mathematics programming at the conference

Photos by Annette Emerson

SACNAS National Diversity in STEM Conference

• Problem: Unfortunately, the numbers of mathematics students has been decreasing over the years

The Education and Diversity Department:

connected with the SACNAS Math Task Force which is working to bring more math programming

convinced SACNAS to change their schedule to spread out the math sessions

created and distributed a flyer listing the mathematics sessions, their times and locations

partnered with SACNAS to host a Math Community Reception for students and faculty

AMS’s Education and Diversity Department’s Mathematics Community Reception

Goal: To eliminate feelings of isolation for mathematics students and to foster a math community at the SACNAS conference

Introduced an ice-breaker activity (with prizes) Gave a quick introduction to AMS, EDD, and the math programming at

the conference

Photos by Annette Emerson

Field of Dreams Conference (Next week!)The National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences

(Math Alliance)

For students from underrepresented groups

Math talks, panel discussions, graduate student poster session

Facilitated Graduate Application Program (F-GAP)

AMS donation supports additional student participants

HGG will moderate panel on mentoring

Photo by Matt Le

2018 JMM Panel: Strategies for Diversifying Graduate Mathematics Programs

Departments have tried a variety of strategies for achieving more diversity in their graduate programs

Four mathematicians discuss their successes and failures – what has worked and what has not

Topics include: Recruitment, Admissions, and Retention

Edray Goins,Purdue University

Richard Laugesen, University of Illinois

Richard McGehee, University of Minnesota

Katrin Wehrheim, University of California, Berkeley

https://www.math.purdue.edu/people/bio/egoins/homehttps://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~laugesen/https://math.umn.edu/directory/richard-mcgeheehttps://math.berkeley.edu/~katrin/

Latinx in Mathematical Sciences Conference (March 2018)

Poster presentations by students and recent Ph.D.’s

Mandatory preconference training in effective communication for student presenters

Supported by the Mathematical Sciences Institutes Diversity Initiative

EDD is working with two of the organizers to see how the EDD can help

Photo by Reed Hutchinson / UCLA

Web Pages on Diversity (under construction)

General Information about the EDD

Advice and suggestions to students and faculty

Links to other education and diversity sites

Information on making nominations for AMS prizes and awards

Upcoming and past events

Thank you!