Joi A. Spencer, PhD- Joi A. Spencer is a native of South Los Angles, CA.  She received her undergraduate and Master's degrees from Stanford University and went on to receive her PhD. from UCLA in 2006. Her dissertation, "Balancing the Equation: African American Students' Opportunities to Learn Mathematics with Understanding," chronicles many of the educational inequities faced by African American students.  Dr. Spencer began her career as a middle school teacher in East Palo Alto, CA.  Here, she participated in the district-wide mathematics text book adoption process, wrote the official curriculum to the city of East Palo Alto's documentary, "Dreams of a City," and witnessed first-hand the joys and frustrations of working in an urban school district.  This experience as a teacher and her own experience as a student in Los Angeles Unified School District worked to fuel her passion for creating schools of innovation and promise for urban school children.  Dr. Spencer's scholarly work examines African American Student identity in mathematics, the impact of mathematics tracking on African American student academic attainment, and ways of improving the academic rigor of mathematics courses in urban classrooms.  Dr. Spencer is also a scholar of African American history and culture.  This past year she produced the Study guide to Carter G. Woodson's seminal work, "The Mis Education of the Negro" in collaboration with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).  Spencer has taken educational excursions to Singapore (learning about their system of mathematics education) and Costa Rica (At the United Nation's University for Peace); enjoys traveling, and is an aspiring naturalist.  Currently a professor at the University of San Diego's School of Leadership and Education Sciences, Dr. Spencer is the founder of King's Academy.  

Kyndall Brown, PhD.-Dr. Kyndall Brown has 13 years teaching experience in secondary urban classrooms in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). He has taught at both the Middle and High School levels in every course from pre-algebra to pre-calculus. Most of his students came from low-income communities with large numbers of English language learners. Dr. Brown has been providing professional development as a mathematics teacher, consultant, and co-director for the UCLA Mathematics Project (UCLAMP) for the past 12 years. In that capacity, he has conducted numerous workshops at schools on strategies to teach mathematics to English language learners, coached mathematics teachers in the UCLAMP  partnership schools and districts, and directed leadership institutes for teachers of mathematics. As a mathematics resource teacher in LAUSD, he has helped to implement standards-based mathematics programs in secondary schools.
Dr. Brown is currently the Director of UCLAMP and a recent graduate of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He was a fellow of the Diversity in Mathematics Education (DiME) Program, an NSF funded program aimed at increasing the number of mathematics education faculty from underrepresented groups.

LaMont Terry- Clarence “La Mont” Terry is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Urban Schooling Division of UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.  His research interests include exploring the impact of critical math literacies on the formation of African-American students’ racial and academic identities, the interrogation of mathematics course-placement structures and de-tracking of math classrooms, as well as the role of the teacher in promoting equity and access to high-quality mathematics instruction.Born in Texas, and raised between the west coast cities of Los Angeles and Seattle, La Mont developed an early excitement for mathematics which was nurtured by a high school mentor.  He received his Bachelor of Arts at Occidental College in Mathematics in 1998.  After completing his Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics at the same institution a year later, La Mont worked as a mathematics instructor at Madrid Middle School in El Monte, CA for six years.  He is most proud of his work with the Math Field Day teams and Chess Club during his tenure at Madrid, as well as the enduring relationships he has with former students.
As an African-American male who has successfully navigated K-16 mathematics curricula, Mr. Terry brings to his work a passion for teaching/learning of mathematics, as well as a deep experiential understanding of the day-to-day struggle of someone who is not expected to achieve in academically-rigorous settings.  As a former department chair and mathematics coach, Mr. Terry brings a unique perspective on the role and development of the teacher-leader, as well as the tensions one experiences as a result of this identity as negotiated in both the classroom space as well as the school site.  His experience teaching in urban schools provides the foundation from which he currently works with pre-service and novice educators who are teaching in South Los Angeles’ most challenging high school settings. 
In addition to his work with UCLA’s Teacher Education Program, Mr. Terry works as a research associate for both the RAND Corporation and the UCLA Mathematics Project.  Mr. Terry is an aspiring astronaut, a semi-finalist for NASA’s 2004 Educator Astronaut Program, and a member of NASA’s national Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers.  He also is an amateur poet and spoken word artist.

Deanna Freund- forthcoming

 
Marian Slaughter- is a PhD student in the Curriculum & Instruction Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her areas of focus are in mathematics education and curriculum theory. After a number of years working as an environmental urban planner, Ms. Slaughter chose to pursue a career as an elementary teacher credentialed to instruct sheltered English classes. In her position of a sheltered-English teacher, Ms. Slaughter learned first hand the challenges and pleasures of successfully teaching English, mathematics, science and social studies not only to African American students, but to students whose home languages varied widely (e.g., Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Bosnian, etc). She volunteered to participate in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) district-wide mathematics textbook adoption process during the 1999-2000 school year. She was a co-developer and instructor of an after-school program focused on developing positive African American identifies for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders called Dreamkeepers. Six years later, she was motivated to pursue a Master’s degree in mathematics education as a result of her experiences as a full time elementary educator in the OUSD. Central to her academic interests is investigating the seemingly perennial question of why certain populations of children, namely those who are impoverished and African American, continue to be poorly served by the American public school system. As a member of the King’s Academy leadership team, she hopes to bring her first hand experiences as a teacher committed to service this community of students and research skills, histories of mathematics and education, and pedagogical and instructional knowledge to the creation of a system of schools that will provide a model of instruction not only for African American children but other communities of children as well.

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