The VMI staff, instructors and mentors, and board are made up of talented educators who have years of experience in working with mathematics teachers, school districts and schools, and state wide initiatives to support high quality mathematics education for all students.
The VMI is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Marc Hull, the Vermont Commissioner of Education from 1996-1999, and Dr. Kenneth I. Gross, UVM Mathematics Professor and founder of VMI.
Judi Laird is the Executive Director of the highly acclaimed Vermont Mathematics Initiative (VMI) and is a graduate of the first VMI cohort in 2002. Prior to joining the VMI faculty, Judi was a Presidential Award winning middle school mathematics educator, an Assessment Consultant for the Vermont State Department of Education and served as a mathematics leader for the VT Portfolio Assessment System.
Ms. Laird was the initial architect for aspects of the VMI curriculum, having developed the ‘teaching-learning’, leadership and research strands of the program. In 2008, Ms Laird led the expansion of the VMI in Cincinnati, Ohio where VMI partnered with Cincinnati Public Schools to address mathematics concerns across the city. The Cincinnati initiative continues to this day and has impacted hundreds of teachers, many of whom now serve in leadership positions in their schools or district. Ms Laird has also contributed to efforts across the US to build content-based professional development programs for teachers, assisting the Universities of Nebraska and New Mexico as they developed their own programs.
Ms. Laird was also instrumental in similar efforts in Massachusetts, Wyoming and Newcastle, Australia, and along with the VMI’s founder, Ken Gross, Judi was a frequent guest of organizations such as the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS), and various other national organizations focused on improved mathematics achievement.
Ms Laird has presented at numerous workshops and conferences and has taught graduate level mathematics courses to teachers throughout Vermont.
Bob has worked for the VMI for the past 13 years. Along with serving on the VMI leadership team, he oversees the teaching/learning and action research strands of the VMI and is a lead statistics instructor.
Bob is co-author of A Focus on Fractions: Bringing research to the classroom (Routledge, 2015), and A Focus on Multiplication and Division: Bringing research to the classroom (Routledge 2017), and A Focus on Ratiso and Proportions: Bringing research to the classroom (Routledge, In development)
Over the past 16 years, Bob has been involved in numerous mathematics instructional and systemic support projects both nationally and internationally. These include initiatives with Philadelphia Public Schools, Cincinnati Public Schools, the Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative, Queen Rania Teachers’ Academy in Amman, Jordan, and the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology and Kenan Institute Asia in Bangkok, Thailand.
Bob was an elementary and middle school teacher in Danville, Vermont for 21 years.
Susan is the lead mathematics instructor for VMI and has worked with them for the past 15 years as an instructor, mentor and course developer. Prior to this, she taught middle-school in northwestern Vermont for 10 years. She worked closely with Ken Gross, VMI’s founder, while he wrote Numbers, Operations, and the Language of Arithmetic (2017), which is the text used during the first year of VMI. Susan has taught mathematics and mathematics education courses at UVM, Norwich University, and Lesley University (MA). She lives with her husband on a small farm in Elmore, VT and is an avid Red Sox fan.
Sandi Stanhope worked in Franklin County for over 25 years as a primary classroom teacher, teacher leader, math interventionist and math coach. She has spent more than 15 years digging into the research around the ways in which young children develop early numeracy, additive reasoning, and their overall sense of mathematics.
She is one of the lead facilitators in the development and implementation of and training for the Primary Number and Operations Assessment (PNOA), a tool used throughout Vermont and elsewhere to identify what young students know and can apply around concepts in early numeracy. In addition, as a primary mathematics consultant, she provides professional development through teaching workshops and graduate level courses, such as Laying the Foundation, Building Upon the Foundation, Problem Solving: Making Sense of Mathematics, and Relational Thinking: Laying the Foundation for Algebra (just to name a few) in school districts across the state of Vermont. All of these courses support the teaching and learning of essential content, knowledge, and pedagogy for teachers and students in the area of mathematics.
Sandi is a 2010 graduate of Vermont Mathematics Initiative and is part of the instructional team for the VMI Statistics courses. She is also a national trainer for OGAP Additive Reasoning and the operations manager for the ALL Learners Network. When she is not immersed in researching the mathematics of young children, Sandi enjoys time off with her family and traveling.
Fran Huntoon was an elementary school teacher for 25 years working with students from kindergarten to grade 6. Through her teaching, she discovered her passion for math. As a graduate of the Vermont Mathematics Initiative, Fran developed her leadership capacity and helped strengthen the mathematics instruction at her school. In her current role as an educational consultant, she works with teachers, coaches, and administrators to improve math instruction.
As a mentor and instructor for the Vermont Mathematics Initiative, Fran works to help teachers deepen their understanding of mathematics and become confident, knowledgeable leaders in their classrooms and schools. In addition to her work at the VMI, she is a national trainer for OGAP; the Ongoing Assessment Project, a facilitator for The All Learners Project and one of the organizers for a series of EdCamps in Vermont focused on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.
When she is not working with teachers and students, Fran continues to read and write about mathematics education. Her areas of interest include instructional strategies that help all students become confident mathematicians.
Beth is the Superintendent of Schools for the Essex Westford School District, Essex Junction, VT. During her 30 years as an educator in Vermont she has been a classroom teacher, an instructional coach, a curriculum coordinator, an assistant superintendent and for the past seven years, a superintendent. In addition, Beth has taught assessment courses for Southern New Hampshire University’s Vermont Masters Program. She was a Math Recovery® teacher and a certified Math Recovery® teacher leader/trainer. Beth did extensive work with formative assessment trainings as well. She is currently is a member of the New England Association of School Superintendent Board and also serves on the Board for Champlain Valley Educator Development Center. Beth’s passionate about educational leadership and making a difference for students. Her three young adult children, her husband and two dogs are her pride and joy.
Priscilla Bremser is the Nathan Beman Professor of Mathematics at Middlebury College, where she has taught since 1984. She earned her B.A. at Smith College, and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include number theory and mathematics education. A practitioner of inquiry-based methods in her own classroom, she has also published articles on active learning in undergraduate mathematics education. She has been an instructor at VMI since
2007.
Paul Smith is a longtime curriculum coordinator for the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union. His job responsibilities include professional development support, curriculum development and assessment in the areas of Math, Science, Health and Technology, grants management, and support for the student information system. Over the years, Paul has participated in a variety of statewide initiatives and programs, including participation in the Vermont School Leadership Project, serving as a VISMT Teacher Associate, assisting instruction for the Vermont Science Initiative, and leadership in the Vermont Learning Collaborative ESA, and the Vermont Standards and Assessment Consortium. As well, Paul has taught graduate courses at the School for International Training and Keene State College. He has written contributions for Connect magazine and for Science Scope.
Karen Nee has been a middle school math teacher at Essex Middle School in Vermont for 14 years. She graduated from the VMI in 2013 and subsequently began working as a mentor for the program. Karen is a strong believer in developing systems within schools that promote student learning and teacher training. In the classroom, her students learn by doing and the focus is on understanding the math. Having moved from Boston, Karen has embraced the outdoor lifestyle that Vermont offers and enjoys spending her free time skiing and hiking.