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    2001 Distinguished Teaching Award

    Dr. Kathleen Lopez
    Dr. Kathleen Lopez received her B.S. degree in Mathematics from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, in 1972.  The next eight years saw her residing at various air force bases and starting a family.  She then returned to Lafayette and her alma mater in the M.S. program in Mathematics.  In 1982 she completed her degree with a concentration in applied mathematics, and incidentally, winning first place in the graduate student paper competition at the LA/MS Section meeting that year.  Upon receiving her degree, she was appointed by UL Lafayette as an Instructor of Mathematics.  While holding this full-time appointment, she enrolled in the department’s Ph.D. program.  She wrote her dissertation in the area of topological groups and was awarded the Ph.D. in 1993.  From spring 1988 to summer 1995, she was Director of Freshman Mathematics, with duties that included major input on curriculum decisions and textbook selection along with the supervision and mentoring of the department’s teaching assistants. 

    Kathleen has taught a variety of courses from developmental mathematics through second calculus.  She has taught a foundations course on set theory and proof-writing and the secondary preservice courses in problem solving and abstract algebra/number theory.   She has been heavily involved in curriculum development and the mathematics training of prospective teachers since the mid-80s.  From 1993 through spring 1998, she worked campus renewal projects funded by LaCEPT, a program dedicated to teacher preparation.  These projects included the complete revision of the university’s mathematics courses for K-8 teachers.  She was involved in designing and writing the material for three of the four courses developed.  Two textbooks were produced from these efforts.  “Integrated Collegiate Mathematics”, which she co-authored, was printed on campus and used successfully for five years.  “A Mathematical Foundation for Elementary Teachers” by Jones, Lopez, and Price, written for the upper three courses in the sequence, has been published as a class-test edition since 1997 by Addison Wesley.  Kathleen has also been involved in faculty development having organized and conducted workshops for university faculty and in-service teachers.  She has presented at local, state, regional, and national conferences. 

    When the South Louisiana Community College opened in 1998, Kathleen was the first faculty member hired.  As Coordinator of the Mathematics Component, she was charged with developing the mathematics curriculum for the college.  In addition, she organized and conducted two LaCEPT-sponsored professional development workshops on mathematics reform for faculty from two-year colleges.  Kathleen is currently head of the Department of Natural Sciences at SLCC.
     
    Comments: travis@mc.edu