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Kevin Dykema is an energetic teacher and presenter who has a passion for mathematics.   He has taught 8th grade math for the past 22 years and is currently teaching at Mattawan (MI) Middle School.   He also conducts many professional development sessions throughout the United States on the use of manipulatives in the math classroom.  Kevin believes that manipulatives are a great way for students to develop conceptual understanding of the math.  He has written several how-to books on teaching mathematics using manipulatives, and has served as editor and referee for the journal Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School.

Kevin was awarded the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics Regional Director's Award in 2007 for outstanding contribution and leadership in mathematics education as well as the Service Award in 2014. He has served as a regional director for the organization and was the annual conference chair from 2011-2016. He also co-founded a conference focused on mathematics for students with disabilities, which he has co-chaired since 2015. Kevin is honored to serve a 3-year term on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Board of Directors, which began in 2016.

Kevin has a B.A in Mathematics from Calvin College and a M.A. in Mathematics Education from Western Michigan University.

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Gladis Kersaint is Dean and Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Connecticut, Neag School of Education. Gladis previously served as the associate dean of academic affairs and research and professor of mathematics education for the College of Education at the University of South Florida (USF). There, she served as director of the David C. Anchin Center and held the David C. Anchin Endowed Chair in Education Innovation. She also served as coordinator of USF Undergraduate Education and chair of the General Education Council. Prior to her academic post at USF, Gladis taught high school mathematics for the Miami Dade County Public Schools.

Gladis has an extensive publication and national and local service record. She has published four books and numerous refereed journal articles related to factors that influence mathematics teacher education and effective mathematics teaching, the mathematical teaching and learning of at-risk students, and the use of technology in teaching and learning mathematics. During her tenure at USF, she served as the principal or co-principal investigator of approximately $30 million of National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, and Florida Department of Education grants.

Gladis has led a number of collaborative STEM education projects involving school district personnel along with university faculty in Arts and Sciences and Engineering. Her national service includes being a member of the Board of Directors for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. Gladis holds a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Education from the University of Miami, as well as a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Illinois State University.

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William McCallum is a University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Arizona. Born in Sydney, Australia in 1956, he received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard University in 1984, under the supervision of Barry Mazur. After spending two years at the University of California, Berkeley, and one at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, he joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1987. In 1989 he joined the Harvard calculus consortium, and is the lead author of the consortium’s multivariable calculus and college algebra texts. In 1993–94 he spent a year at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, and in 1995–96 he spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study on a Centennial Fellowship from the American Mathematical Society. In 2005 he received the Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars from the National Science Foundation. In 2006 he founded the Institute for Mathematics and Education at the University of Arizona, and is currently its director. In 2009–2010 he was one of the lead writers for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. His professional interests include arithmetical algebraic geometry and mathematics education. He has received grants and written articles, essays, and books in both areas.

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Diana Suddreth is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Utah State Board of Education where she currently leads the Utah Teacher Effectiveness Team, The Standards Implementation Teams, the Digital Teaching and Learning Team, and Utah Educator Licensing. Although her professional role has grown to encompass all academic content areas, her passion remains for high quality mathematics education for all students.

Diana began her 25-year teaching career in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ended it in Southern Utah with stops in California and Northern Utah along the way.  Diana was the 2000 Presidential Awardee in Secondary Mathematics for Utah and earned her National Board Teaching Certificate in Adolescent and Young Adult Mathematics in 2002.  While teaching, Diana was the recipient of several grants, including the Toyota TIME grant which she focused on building a statistics library and resources for her high school.

Diana joined the Utah State Board of Education in 2006 as Secondary Mathematic Specialist and was also the STEM Coordinator for five years before becoming director.  She led the state in transition to an integrated pathway of the Utah State Core based on the Common Core.  Her activities in the mathematics education community include serving two years as the President of the Association of State Supervisors for Mathematics and working with the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership.

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Zalman Usiskin is a Professor emeritus of education at the University of Chicago.  He continues at the university as director of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP), a position he has held since 1987.  His research has focused on the teaching and learning of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, with particular attention to applications of mathematics at all levels and the use of transformations and related concepts in geometry, algebra, and statistics.  His interests are broader, covering all aspects of mathematics education, with particular emphasis on matters related to curriculum, instruction, and testing; the selection and organization of content; comparison studies of students using different curricula; international mathematics education; the history of mathematics education; and educational policy.

Zalman has authored or co-authored over 150 articles and papers on mathematics and mathematics education, and dozens of books, including textbooks for grades 6 through 12.   In developing these books, he taught mathematics in nine secondary schools.  He also co-authored a mathematics text for graduate students on high school mathematics.  From 2004 to 2015, he was a co-PI of the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum.  In 2014, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published a book of 38 of his papers.

Zalman’s service includes terms on the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the National Research Council, the Board of Directors of NCTM, and the United States National Commission on Mathematics Instruction, which he chaired from 1998 to 2001.  From 1995 through 2005, he was on various NAEP committees associated with development and evaluation of NAEP items, including development of the NAEP Mathematics Framework.

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Kathleen Heid is Distinguished Professor of Education and Professor-in-Charge of Mathematics Education at Penn State University. She served as co-PI of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, one of the first Centers for Learning and Teaching funded by the National Science Foundation. Kathleen has also served on the Board of Governors for the Mathematical Association of America and on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. She was co-director of the NSF-funded CAS-Intensive Mathematics curriculum project, and she coedited internationally authored volumes on Research on Technology and the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics and two volumes on Mathematical Understanding for Secondary Teaching. From 2009 to 2012, she served as Editor for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, the flagship research journal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Kathleen’s research interests center on the mathematical understandings needed by secondary mathematics teachers, on mathematical thinking, on the impact of technology on the teaching and learning of mathematics, and on the creation and investigation of technology-intensive mathematics curricula.