Miriam Leiva

Miriam Almaguer Leiva is a Cuban-American mathematician and mathematics educator, the first American Hispanic woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics and mathematics education.[1][2] She is the Bonnie Cone Distinguished Professor for Teaching Emerita in the Department of Mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the founder of TODOS: Mathematics for All, an organization devoted to advocacy for and encouragement of Latinx students in mathematics.[3] She is also an author of many secondary-school mathematics textbooks.[2]

This article is about the Cuban-American mathematics educator. For the Cuban journalist, see Oscar Espinosa Chepe.

Education and career

Leiva moved from Cuba to the US as a teenager in the 1950s.[1][2] She did her undergraduate studies at Guilford College, graduating in 1961,[4] and was initially denied admission for graduate study in mathematics at the University of North Carolina for being a woman. Nevertheless, she persisted,[1] and earned a master's degree there in 1966 under the mentorship of Alfred Brauer, with a thesis on Elementary estimates for the least positive primitive root modulo pr.[5]

After finishing her master's degree, she became a secondary school mathematics teacher. Later, she obtained a teaching position at the University of North Carolina, and while teaching there completed her doctorate in mathematics and mathematics education through a distance education program[1] at Union Institute & University.

Recognition

In 2008, TODOS gave Leiva their Iris Carl Equity and Leadership Award.[2] In 2013 the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) gave her the inaugural Kay Gilliland Equity Lecture Award for "contributions to equity in mathematics education".[6] In 2014 the NCTM gave her the Mathematics Education Trust Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics Education.[3]

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References
  1. Leiva, Katie (February 23, 2013), "Miriam Almaguer Leiva", Grandma Got STEM, retrieved 2018-02-04
  2. Iris Carl Equity and Leadership Award 2008 (PDF), TODOS: Mathematics for All, 2008, retrieved 2018-02-04
  3. UNCC Math Professor Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, April 15, 2014, retrieved 2018-02-04
  4. "Class Notes", Guilford College Magazine, p. 23, Winter 2013, retrieved 2018-02-04
  5. Carmichael, Richard D. (1986), "Alfred Brauer: Teacher, mathematician, and developer of libraries", Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, 102 (3): 88–106
  6. Kay Gilliland Equity Lecture Award, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, retrieved 2018-02-04
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