About the Speakers
Speakers:
Dr. Jennifer McLoud grew up in the small town of Weleetka, Oklahoma (population around 1,000). While attending high school, she was an active member of the basketball team, cheerleading squad, FHA, and student council. As for academics, she took all the math/science classes that were offered which surprisingly didn't involve calculus or physics! After high school, she married her high-school sweetheart (Dr. Mann today at UT-Tyler) and attended a four-year university in Oklahoma majoring in mathematics and minoring in physics. During this time, she was involved in the McNair Scholars program (founded in honor of Ronald McNair, an astronaut that died in the Challenger explosion) which encourages minorities and first-generation college students to seek graduate degrees. As a side note, Dr. McLoud fell into each of these categories, she is of Cherokee descent and was the first person in her family to receive a bachelor's degree. With the encouragement from the McNair program and her family, she enrolled at the University of Arkansas to try for a master's degree in mathematics and before she knew it she had her Ph.D. in mathematics. She has been working at UT-Tyler since graduating in 2002. She has many interests these days. In relation to work, she is a co-sponsor of the math club at UT-Tyler and looks forward to driving a van full of women mathematics majors to Nebraska every year in February to attend a conference for women in mathematics. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, playing various sports and exercising (racquetball, tennis, and jogging). and spending time with her husband and daughter, Nyx.
Dr. Deborah Koslover was raised in the O.C.. She does research in mathematical physics studying the properties of quasiperiodic crystals.
Dr. David Milan was born in Omaha, Nebraska and lived there until he received his Ph.D. in 2008. This is his first year working as a math professor at UT Tyler. He studies C*-algebras, a branch of mathematics that is used in quantum physics.
Ms. Nancy Bailey grew up in Tyler, and owes her mathematics education to her grandfather who told her, with witnesses present, that he'd always thought math was just too hard for a girl. Since earning her bachelor's and master's degrees in math, she has taught for 22 years, much of it in high school. She has particular lifelong interests in mathematics, women's education, and infinity.