MAA  Mathematical Association of America

Seaway Section

Susan Loepp is the William Dwight Whitney Professor of Mathematics at Williams College. After earning her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994 and completing a two-year postdoctoral position at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she joined the Williams College Department of Mathematics in 1996. Susan’s research area is commutative algebra and her recent research interests include constructing Noetherian rings that behave nicely algebraically but have strange prime ideal structures. In addition to working on research with her colleagues, Susan’s passions include advising undergraduate research projects in commutative algebra. To date, she has advised the research of 75 undergraduate students resulting in more than 30 papers published in mathematics research journals. Susan is also interested in cryptography and error correction. She coauthored the book Protecting Information: From Classical Error Correction to Quantum Cryptography with William Wootters.

Judith Covington earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics Education from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, followed by a master’s degree in Algebra and a PhD in Topology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. During her graduate studies, she began her longstanding commitment to the preparation of future mathematics teachers. She spent 25 years at Louisiana State University in Shreveport, where she primarily taught courses for prospective teachers and led professional development workshops for in-service teachers. In 2010, Judith founded the North Louisiana Math Teachers’ Circle and successfully led the program for eight years before returning to Northwestern State University in 2018. She also served as a mentor with the American Institute of Mathematics, where she assisted other sites in establishing their own Math Teachers’ Circles. Since returning to Northwestern State, she has worked to create a new Math Circle in Natchitoches and, in September 2024, hosted the inaugural meeting of Math4Fun, a Math Teachers’ Circle serving educators in North Louisiana. Judith has an extensive history of service with the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). She is an original (1994) Project NExT Red Dot and served on the Project NExT Leadership Team from 1997 to 2014. Her additional service includes terms as an MAA Governor-at-Large for Teacher Education and as Governor/Representative of the Louisiana–Mississippi Section. She has held numerous leadership roles within her home section and is currently serving as Section NExT Coordinator. At the national level, she currently serves as Chair of the MAA Council on Sections.

Kelly Delp is the Stephen H. Weiss Provost Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer at Cornell University. She earned her PhD form UCSB in 2005 working in the field of Geometric Topology. She also has an interest in visualizing mathematics. In 2015 she was program chair of the Bridges: Math, Art, Architecture and Culture conference, and in 2019 an organizer of the Visualizing Mathematics semester program at ICERM. Since beginning her current position at Cornell, her primary focus has been teaching and developing courses, and training and mentoring graduate TAs and undergraduate tutors.