Herbel-Eisenmann named new Director of PRIME/Graduate Program

Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, mathematics education faculty member and Professor from the Department of Teacher Education (TE) at MSU, has been named Director of the Program in Mathematics Education (PRIME) and the Mathematics Education Graduate Program Director, effective August 16, 2022.

Herbel-Eisenmann received her PhD in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy from MSU in 2000. She served as Assistant Professor at various universities before returning to MSU in 2008. She noted, “I returned to Michigan State after being in academia for seven years, because of the quality of the teacher education and PhD programs and the opportunities to work with many amazing students and the really exceptional faculty.”

Since arriving at MSU in January 2008, Beth has been an active contributor to the PRIME program. She has collaborated with faculty to design the proseminar courses for incoming PhD students, taught the introductory proseminar course many times, chaired and served on the curriculum, comprehensive exam, and colloquium committees, mentored and graduated many mathematics education PhD students as well as served on many other doctoral student guidance committees in the PRIME program, in addition to those in the TE Department.

Beth is a prolific writer and has sustained a substantive record of contributions to the field of mathematics education and cumulative record of academic leadership. For almost two decades she has been funded consistently by the National Science Foundation and through internal grants, managing research projects, budgets, and personnel. She has published in every major mathematics education journal and many teacher education and education journals, writing to multiple audiences. She also has co-edited four books, and has given numerous invited and peer-reviewed talks. Using participatory approaches to research, she has had three long-term research partnerships with mathematics teacher-researchers and her international research collaborations include colleagues in Canada and Norway.

Nationally, Beth has chaired the Research Committee for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; served on and chaired the Editorial Panel for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME); was editor for the JRME monograph series; and was elected to the board for the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE) and SIG-Research in Mathematics Education. In 2010, Beth was awarded the Early Career Award from AMTE. From 2015-2022, she was involved in and co-led the STaR national mentoring program for first- and second- year faculty in mathematics education through AMTE. Internationally, she has co-organized a Topic Study Group on Communication and Language for the International Congress on Mathematics Education and has served on the International Advisory Board and is the Convener for the international group Mathematics Education and Society.

From 2019-2022, she was on assignment at the National Science Foundation (NSF) where she was a Program Officer for 2 years, followed by an appointment as an Intermittent Expert this past year. She ran review panels and handled a portfolio of grants from three different programs (Early CAREER awards, Division for Research on K12 (DRK12), and ECR Core) within the Division for Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL). She was also part of a cross-directorate team who developed and launched the first Racial Equity in STEM program for the Educational and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate.

Beth commented, “The people involved in PRIME have done some great work together so far. I’m really looking forward to working with the amazing doctoral students, faculty and staff to collaboratively generate some guiding principles for PRIME that might take us in some new and exciting directions. I’m also hoping we can guide this work through a strong consideration of equitable practices and policies to create spaces that allow everyone to thrive and doctoral students to become who they most wish to be through our graduate program.”

Beth Herbel-Eisenmann replaces Ralph Putnam, mathematics education faculty member from the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education (CEPSE), who has held the position since January 2019, and has been a faculty member at MSU since 1986. He officially retired on August 15, 2022.

Ralph noted, “Personally, I'm delighted that Beth has stepped forward to provide leadership for PRIME and am confident that she brings many gifts and perspectives to work together with the PRIME community, nurturing and growing together.”    

He continued, “It has been an honor to be a part of the PRIME community all these years and serve as Director for the past three and a half. I so value the commitment, energy, and love that students, faculty, and staff bring to this scholarly mathematics education community.”

We offer special thanks to Ralph for his many years of service to mathematics education here at MSU, and wish him well in his retirement years ahead.

We look forward to Beth Herbel-Eisenmann’s leadership and service in her new role as Director of PRIME and Graduate Director of the Mathematics Education doctoral program. Welcome, Beth!