Karim Ani is the founder of Citizen Math (formerly Mathalicious) and the author of "Dear Citizen Math: How Math Class Can Inspire a More Rational and Respectful Society." Prior to developing curriculum, Karim was a middle school math teacher and instructional coach.Karim has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University and a master’s degree in secondary math education from the University of Virginia.

Barbara Oakley, PhD, PE is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan; Michigan’s Distinguished Professor of the Year; and Coursera’s inaugural “Innovation Instructor.” Her work focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior. Dr. Oakley’s research has been described as “revolutionary” in the Wall Street Journal. She is a New York Times best-selling author who has published in outlets as varied as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Her book A Mind for Numbers, on effective learning in STEM disciplines, has sold over a million copies worldwide; Uncommon Sense Teaching is a critically praised guide to teaching based on insights from neuroscience. Dr. Oakley has won numerous teaching awards, including the American Society of Engineering Education’s Chester F. Carlson Award for technical innovation in engineering education and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers William E. Sayle II Award for Achievement in Education. Together with Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute, she co-teaches Coursera’s “Learning How to Learn,” one of the world’s most popular massive open online courses with some four million registered students, along with a number of other leading MOOCs.

Dr. Oakley has adventured widely through her lifetime. She rose from the ranks of Private to Captain in the U.S. Army, during which time she was recognized as a Distinguished Military Scholar. She also worked as a communications expert at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and has served as a Russian translator on board Soviet trawlers on the Bering Sea. Dr. Oakley is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Fawn begins her work this year as a Specialist on the Math Advance Team at Amplify Desmos Math. She was a math coach for a K-8 school district for three years and before that, a middle school teacher for 30 years. Fawn was the 2014 Ventura County Teacher of the Year, was awarded the Math Teacher Hero from Raytheon in 2009 and the Sarah D. Barder Fellowship from the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth in 2005.

Fawn blogs about her lessons and classroom teaching at fawnnguyen.com. She also authors three other websites for teachers: visualpatterns.org, between2numbers.com, and chewablemath.com.

Howie Hua is a math instructor at Fresno State who teaches math to future elementary school teachers. He is passionate about finding ways to humanize the math classroom, listening to how students think about math, and building mathematical confidence in students. In 2019, Howie was named Outstanding Lecturer for the College of Science and Math at his university. Outside of school, Howie likes to play piano, go on walks, make math memes, and make math explainer videos.

Tammy McMorrow has been teaching first grade for 29 years in Kuna, Idaho. She started incorporating Building Thinking Classrooms into her classroom in January of 2022 and quickly became won over by its magic and messiness. Watching her young students think, really think, lit a fire in her. She became determined to start a movement — to spread the news of BTC to whomever would listen. She started a Facebook page for K-2 teachers. She led a book study at her school. She welcomed teachers from both inside and outside her district to observe BTC in her space. She’s forever grateful for the power of Peter Liljedahl’s research and how it has transformed learning for her mathematicians.