Our Team

Jo Boaler

Dr Jo Boaler is the Nomellini & Olivier Professor of Education at Stanford University. Former roles have included being the Marie Curie Professor of Mathematics Education in England, and a maths teacher in London comprehensive schools. Her PhD won the national award for educational research in the UK. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), and a former president of the International Organization for Women and Mathematics Education (IOWME). She is the recipient of a National Science Foundation ‘Early Career Award’, the NCSM Kay Gilliland Equity Award (2014) and the CMC Walter Denham Mathematics Leadership award (2015). She is the author of nineteen books and numerous research articles. She is a White House presenter on women and girls. She co-founded www.youcubed.org to give teachers, parents and students the resources and ideas they need to inspire and excite students about mathematics. Her work has been published in the New York Times, TIME magazine, The Telegraph, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and many other news outlets. Her latest book is Math-ish: Finding Creativity, Diversity and Meaning in Mathematics published by Harper Collins. She is currently co-leading a K-12 Data Science Initiative and was named as one of the 8 educators “changing the face of education” by the BBC. Her Stanford faculty webpage can be found here.

Cathy Williams

Cathy Williams is the Co-Founder and the Executive Director of youcubed. Previously Cathy served as the Director of K-12 Mathematics in the Vista Unified School District where her professional development series earned a California State Golden Bell Award. The professional development in Vista Unified included a unique technology infused K-12 mathematics program that provided workshops for parents, teachers and administrators, and included talks and coaching by Jo Boaler. Cathy’s former roles have included a high school mathematics teacher, AVID coordinator, and mathematics department chair and district curriculum leader over an 18-year span before she became a curriculum and instruction administrator in 2003. Cathy served for seven years as the San Diego County Office of Education K-12 Mathematics Coordinator where her key projects included developing the book and professional development program, Math Language that Works and the online math teacher support program Getting Ready for Algebra.

Her professional development series, Algebraic Reasoning Through Inquiry (ARTI) supported many district teachers in San Diego County. During her County Office time Cathy served as the lead coordinator for the first generation California State Early Assessment Program (EAP) professional development series.

Jack Dieckmann

Jack serves as the Director of Research at youcubed. In that role, he studies and documents the effectiveness of youcubed’s learning opportunities including Jo Boaler’s online courses in growth mindset, applications of neuroscience to math teaching, among other youcubed research-based practices for high quality teaching in mathematics. Prior to joining youcubed, he was the associate director for curriculum at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), where he led the math team in performance assessment development. As a scholar of teaching, Jack’s additional research interest is in the area of mathematical explanations, especially for English learners at the middle and high school levels. He received his doctorate in math education at Stanford GSE in 2009, co-advised by Jo Boaler and Linda Darling-Hammond. For the past 12 years, Jack has served as adjunct faculty in the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP).

Estelle Woodbury

Estelle is a Professional Learning Specialist at youcubed whose roles include facilitating our teacher workshops and developing content.  Prior to joining the youcubed team, Estelle taught high school for 10 years. She co-taught the summer session of curriculum and instruction for Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) with Jack Dieckmann (currently Director of Research for youcubed). She shared her experience as a teacher in a book that she co-authored with a team of people including Nailah Nasir and Nicole Louie called Mathematics for Equity: A Framework for Successful Practice. Estelle has worked throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with teachers and students, first at a charter school as a math coach and curriculum writer, and then as a Complex Instruction coach in San Francisco Unified schools. Lastly, she joined the Oakland Unified school district math team working as the middle school math coordinator to support the district in their transition to the Common Core State Standards where she collaborated with teachers and developed a district core curriculum.

Kristina Dance

Kristina is a Data Science Project Manager. In that role she oversees curriculum writing and professional development for the youcubed high school course Explorations in Data Science. She is also a Lecturer in the Stanford Teacher Education Program. Before joining youcubed, she taught middle school and high school math for 10 years. She also taught Math Curriculum and Instruction at STEP with both Jo Boaler and Jack Dieckmann (Director of Research for youcubed). She has designed professional development opportunites and coached mathematics teachers at all levels for the last ten years throughout the west coast, including the San Francisco Unified School District. Kristina is a graduate of the Stanford Teacher Education program where she received her masters in education and teaching credential and has an undergraduate degree in mathematics.

Montse Cordero

Montse is a Maths Designer at youcubed. They grew up in San Jose, Costa Rica as a space geek and a math nerd. When they got to Stanford they had no idea they would be interested in education, but they took a class with Jo and never left. In math education, they found a place to combine their passions for math, science communication, and social justice. They joined the youcubed team as an undergraduate student-worker when youcubed was just a baby and they’re very excited to now be part of the team as full-time staff. They received a BS in mathematics with honors in education from Stanford and wrote their honors thesis on algorithms for the division of fractions. When they’re not at work changing the world through math education, you can find them geeking out about random stuff on the internet, playing board games with their friends, or catching up on all the reading they missed while getting their degree.

Jessica Method

Jessica recently celebrated  her 10 year anniversary as a Stanford staff member. She supports youcubed co-founder and Stanford Professor, Jo Boaler, along with general youcubed operations and event coordination. She joined the team in May of 2015 and previously supported several other Stanford Graduate School of Education faculty members. She holds a BA in communications and is currently writing her thesis for a Master of Arts degree in Counselor Education at San Jose State University.

Suzanne Corkins

Suzanne Corkins joined youcubed in 2014 as an operational and financial analyst.  Previously, she was a consultant advising Silicon Valley companies on strategy, financial planning, corporate development and marketing. Her prior professional experience included leading mergers and acquisitions for Molecular Devices Corporation, strategic planning for The Permanente Medical Group, and management consulting with Monitor Company.  Suzanne holds an MBA and a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford.