Vermont Mathematics Initiative

Building Capacity across Vermont for High-Quality Mathematics Instruction

Leadership Team Biosketch

 

Dr. Kenneth I. Gross, VMI Director, Professor of Mathematics and Education at University of Vermont -Dr. Gross is the overall VMI Director. He is a distinguished research mathematician, educator, and academic administrator who has published over forty papers and is the editor of three books.  His breadth of educational interests stretches from teaching arithmetic to mathphobic adults to advising doctoral students at the cutting edge of mathematical research.  He is a recent recipient of the Haimo Distinguished College and University Teaching Award from the Mathematics Association of America (MAA), and in prior years received the Chauvenet Prize and the Lester R. Ford Award, also from the MAA, as well as both the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Member Award and the University Scholar Award, the highest honors in teaching and research, respectively, at the University of Vermont.  Dr. Gross is also the Founding Co-Director of the Vermont State Mathematics Coalition and the Vermont High School Summer Mathematics Enrichment Institute (now the Governor's Institute in the Mathematical Sciences), and was the Founding Director of The Lesley University Center for Mathematics Achievement (on leave to Lesley from University of Vermont). He has also served as Program Director at the National Science Foundation, both in the Research and Education Directorates, has been Assistant to the Vermont Commissioner of Education for Mathematics Education, and is as Principal Investigator on the USDOE-NSF funded Vermont Mathematics Partnership grant.

research and teacher leadership.  Ms. Laird is a middle level mathematics educator having taught several grade levels in her 16 year teaching history.  She was recently awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and was recognized for her achievements in Washington D.C.  Ms. Laird has been responsible for the development and implementation of a four-year initiative aimed at improved mathematics instruction in Vermont’s geographically largest and most rural supervisory unions.  She has presented at numerous workshops and teaches graduate level mathematics courses to teachers through Lyndon State College and University of Vermont.  She has been involved in stateside mathematics projects including serving as a network leader for the VT Portfolio Assessment System and as an Assessment Consultant for the Vermont Department of Education, in addition to her VMI responsibilities.  As a 2002 graduate of the VMI, Ms. Laird has a master’s degree in education with a specialty in K– 8 mathematics.

Robert Rosenfeld, VMI Co-Director for Statistics and School-Based Research and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics at Nassau Community College-Professor Rosenfeld recently retired after thirty years on the faculty of Nassau Community College in New York.  He is currently involved in several teacher training and adult education programs in Vermont. He holds MS and M.Phil. degrees in Biostatistics (Columbia), an MAT in Mathematics (Harvard) and is author or co-author of seven textbooks.  Professor Rosenfeld directs the statistics and school-based research components of the VMI.  He is responsible for developing the statistics content of the VMI curriculum and for coordinating the research activities of the participants.

Susan Ojala, Lead VMI Course Instructor, Distinguished elementary and middle school teacher and a graduate of the VMI-As Lead Field Mentor, Ms. Ojala has a primary responsibility for the in-school mentoring component of the VMI that supports teachers in transferring their deepened mathematics understanding to effective practice in their classrooms and in accelerating the success of VMI teachers in their action research and leadership responsibilities.  She also serves as an Instructor in a number of VMI courses.  Prior to working for the VMI, Ms. Ojala had been a middle level educator for ten years.   She earned her master’s degree in education at UVM through the VMI program.  Her love of mathematics inspires her students to stretch themselves to reach new levels of understanding and to tackle challenging problems.  Susan has written mathematics curriculum for two school districts in Vermont.  She has been a state portfolio scorer and a benchmarking assistant for 8^th grade math.  She loves to solve math problems and is very interested in conducting research that focuses on the difficulties many students have with problem solving.

Bob Laird, VMI Liason to Schools-Bob Laird is a former mathematics educator for the Vermont Mathematics Partnership (VMP).  Bob’s primary responsibility while at VMP was co-facilitating the Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) development and training.  In this role, he assisted classroom teachers in implementing OGAP in their classrooms and worked with teacher leaders as they borught this formitative assessment to schools and districts.  In addition to his work with OGAP, Bob has assisted school districts throughout Vermont, has worked as a writer for summative mathematics assessments and has done a significant amount of work with teacher leaders in the area of mathematics.  Bob’s teaching career spanned over 20 years, most of which were at the Danville School in Danville, Vermont.  He taught upper elementary grades for many years before moving to middle school mathematics.  Bob is a 2003 graduate of the Vermont Mathematics Initiative.  When he has time, you’ll find him fly-fishing on a nice trout stream!

Judith Laird, VMI Executive Director, Presidential Awardee Teacher, former Assessment Consultant for the Vermont State Department of Education and VMI graduate.  As Executive Director of the VMI, Ms. Laird coordinates the development and integration of the four VMI program components: mathematics content, effective instructional practices, action