MAA Certificate for Meritorious Service in the Northeastern Section

Donna Beers has long been generous and gracious in offering her time, talents and infectious enthusiasm to The Mathematical Association of America through both the Northeastern Section and at the national level. She is well-known and highly regarded by mathematicians and mathematics educators throughout the broader mathematics community. It is no surprise to many that The Mathematical Association of America would seize this opportunity to recognize and honor Donna through this MAA Certificate for Meritorious Service.

Her contributions to our association are numerous and varied. Donna served as Section Vice Chairperson from 1992-1993, Chairperson from 1993-1995, and Past Chairperson from 1995-1997. She served as Section Governor from 2000-2003. Throughout the period of her leadership the section continued to prosper by offering varied and interesting programs that were well received by the membership. Donna has often been an invited speaker at section meetings, from the 1970s to the present, where she offered her insights into a variety of mathematical and educational topics. In 2003 she gave the invited presentation for students at the MAA-AMS Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore. In addition, she has given many contributed papers at both section and national meetings. She hosted a section minicourse in 1995 as well as very successful section dinner meetings each year since 2004. She was the Chairperson of the Program Committee for the Spring 1990 Section Meeting at Roger Williams College. Further, she has served on and chaired numerous NES/MAA committees, including several program committees for section meetings. She is a current or former member of the MAA editorial boards of The American Mathematical Monthly, the College Mathematics Journal, the Dolciani Mathematical Expositions, and Focus/MAA Online. She also serves on the steering committee of the MAA PREP Workshop: Leading the Academic Department: A Workshop for Chairs of a Mathematical Sciences Departments.

Donna is Professor of Mathematics and past Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Simmons College, where she has been since 1986. She teaches a variety of courses including calculus, discrete mathematics, linear algebra and modern algebra. Her scholarly interests include preparation of teachers, undergraduate research, and abelian groups. She served as Director of the Honors Program, and created a very successful interdisciplinary Honors seminar on patterns. She currently serves as coordinator and principle investigator of a project to work with TechBoston, a department of the Boston Public Schools, to create a mentoring program for high school women interested in Web design and programming. Her extracurricular interests include Lindor truffles, aerobic exercise, and jazz.

For her hard work and continuing commitment to the advancement of mathematics and of the MAA, Donna Beers is deserving of recognition. The Mathematical Association of America and the Northeastern Section are pleased to award Donna Beers this Certificate for Meritorious Service.