These days I am splitting my time between The CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College.  This is because I am the Co-PI on an NSF grant called MetroMath – The Center for Mathematics in America’s Cities.  I have been doing this since 2004 when I left the Mathematics Department at York College to join the Mathematics Department at Brooklyn College.  Everything happens at once, so I also began directing MetroMath@CUNY at the same time.  MetroMath is a Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) Mathematics and is a collaboration with Rutgers University (the lead university) and University of Pennsylvania.  MetroMath@CUNY is focused on research on New York City’s Mathematics Teaching Fellows (NYCTF), the largest alternative certification program in the United States, and also on the Math Coach initiative.  Our research team has grown to include faculty from Brooklyn College, City College, College of Staten Island, Lehman College, The Graduate Center, Queens College, and Hostos Community College.

We have supported several doctoral students who are also on our research team. Two of these MetroMath Fellows have just completed their dissertation work.  Dr. Laura Gellert has joined the faculty at City College and Dr. Lidia Gonzalez has joined the faculty at York College. I served on the committee of Dr. Gellert and as Dr. Gonzalez's advisor. Our senior research associate, Dr. Andrew Brantlinger, also left MetroMath in Fall 2008 and joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, but continues to be an active researcher on our team. 

Our research team meets almost every week at the Graduate Center. We have completed two years of data collection and are now in the data analysis phase.  I find our work fascinating and very rewarding.  We will continue at the Graduate Center at least until Spring, 2009.  There is not much hope for renewal of the CLT’s (there are about 18 of them across the country) in spite of being very productive.  Our current federal administration has slashed funding for the National Science Foundation and several programs are being cut. I hope to move operations back over to Brooklyn College as much as possible at that time. 

Apart from MetroMath, I have been collaborating with my colleagues, Bill Martin (North Dakota State University), Draga Vidakovic (Georgia State University) and Sergio Loch (Grandview College) on projects around the learning and teaching of linear algebra.  Bill Martin and I were awarded an NSF curriculum development grant (CCLI) to develop a seminar that studied mathematics learning theories with linear algebra as a case study.  We ran this seminar in Spring 2006 at Brooklyn College and I co-taught it with my colleague, Dr. Michael Meagher (School of Education, Brooklyn College).  We have recently applied for another CCLI grant to incorporate computer science applications into linear algebra.  Dr. Scott Dexter (Computer Science, Brooklyn College) and I were awarded a CUNY Faculty Development grant this year to begin this process, so we will be teaching a linear algebra course in Fall 2008. 

I also serve at the Deputy Chair of Graduate Students in the Mathematics Department at Brooklyn college, as well as a member of the Appointments Committee. I additionally serve on the Mathematics Department's Graduate Curriculum Committee, as well as the Brooklyn College's campus-wide Graduate Curriculum Committee.