Dr. Powell is a professor at UNC Asheville currently teaching calculus, differential equations, and the mathematics seminar course. Dr. Powell received her Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Toledo and has research interests in mathematical biology, infectious disease dynamics, and sports analytics.

I grew up in the suburbs of New York City and moved to North Carolina when I was 12. I attended UNC Asheville as an undergrad, where I received my B.S. degree with distinction in Chemistry. I then went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in Minneapolis where I lived for 6 years as I earned my M.S. and subsequent Ph. D. I studied computational chemistry and was a founding member of the Goodpaster Research Group. My focus of study was using Density Functional Theory to study the electronic structure, geometry, and reaction mechanisms of transition metal metalloenzymes, specific focus was placed on the Ni-Fe Hydrogenase enzyme, as well as transition metal catalysis. Now, I teach Physical Chemistry and General Chemistry as a Lecturer at UNC Asheville.

Dr. Antonou is an assistant professor of mathematics who has been with University of St. Francis since 2014. She has a strong interest in encouraging members of the community to recognize the mathematicians in themselves. As part of this goal, she participates in research of various kinds, which includes having published four articles in three different fields, as well as facilitating undergraduate student research for six students, two of whom have won awards for their research. In addition, she has created activities for and helps to run professional development sessions through the Southwest Chicago Math Teachers’ Circle, which allows middle and high school math teachers the chance to play with mathematics and to have a renewed love of math. And, she has also designed and run math camp activities for four different middle/high school math camps. She currently serves on the board of the Illinois Section of the Mathematical Association of America (ISMAA) and on the Faculty Advisory Council for the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Her contributions to the math community have recently been acknowledged through the ISMAA, as she was the 2020 recipient of the Early Career Teaching Award.

Andrew Hatfield is a graduate student at Illinois State University, as well as current IBA PEER Coordinator. He has research interests in Algebra, Computing, and Category Theory and is currently working on his master’s thesis at ISU. Andrew will lead student groups during the conference, as well host preparatory office hours during May.

Leon M. Arriola is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His research interests include sensitivity analysis, functional equations, and modeling the spread of epidemics. Arriola has a PhD in mathematics from Old Dominion University.

Patrick was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He stayed in the West for college, attending the University of Denver as an undergraduate before moving to the South to pursue his doctoral degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. After a completing a postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois, Patrick joined the faculty in the Math Department at UNC Asheville and later took over as Director of the university's Honors Program. Patrick's academic interests vary widely, including not only pure mathematics but also composition and rhetoric and urban studies. Among his favorite classes to teach are Calculus II and the university's senior capstone course, LA 478: Cultivating Global Citizenship.