Jennifer A Wolfe

Biography

Jennifer A. Wolfe (she/her) is a biracial Asian American cisgender woman, daughter of a Thai immigrant, first generation college graduate, and has been in mathematics teacher education for over 20 years. While her primary focus is on grades 6-12 mathematics teacher preparation, she has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate mathematics and mathematics education courses, mentored grades 6-12 student teachers, and facilitated professional development workshops for in-service teachers in rural Appalachia and across the country. She also has extensive experience in working with K-16 students both within and outside the classroom setting. 

As an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Arizona, her work focuses on the use of equitable teaching practices through Complex Instruction, a research-based form of collaborative learning that centers on dismantling hierarchies of competence and shifting power and resources to historical and presently excluded and marginalized folx of the global majority. She supports pre-service and in-service secondary mathematics teachers in learning to co-create identity affirming spaces that center student voice, collaboration, community, equity, radical love, and joy.

She is a recipient of the 2015 UArizona AAU Undergraduate STEM Teaching Excellence Award, the 2022 College of Science Innovation in Teaching Award, and the 2022 Department of Mathematics David Lovelock Innovation in Education Award for effectively implementing research-based equitable teaching practices for engaging students in collaborative groupwork. She was awarded the Leicester & Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award and recognized at the 2024 UA Awards of Distinction. This event honors the recipients of the University of Arizona's highest faculty teaching honors.

She has served as Co-PI/Senior Personnel on two NSF grants aimed at the (1) recruiting, supporting, and retaining secondary mathematics teachers and (2) investigating preservice and beginning teachers views on equity and classroom implementation of equitable mathematics teaching practices.

She has served in leadership roles for Association for Mathematics Teachers Educators (AMTE), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and the Psychology of Mathematics Education-North American Chapter (PMENA). She served as co-editor for the Informing Practice Department of the NCTM Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School journal and for the Ear to the Ground Department of the NCTM Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12 journal. She is a former Fellow of The Center for Inquiry and Equity in Mathematics, The Teaching Well, and the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice.

She is currently a co-host of the AMTE Teaching Math Teaching podcast, a mentor for the AMTE Service, Teaching, & Research (STaR) fellowship program, an early career induction program for faculty in mathematics education, and serves on the editorial panel for the Mathematics Teacher Educator journal. Dr. Wolfe holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts in Mathematics, and a PhD in Mathematics Education from the University of Kentucky.

Degrees

• Ph.D. Mathematics Education
• University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America
• An exploratory mixed methods study of prospective middle grades teachers' mathematical connections while completing investigative tasks in geometry
• M.A. Mathematics
• University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America
• B.S. Mathematics
• University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Awards

• University Distinguished Faculty Award UArizona Foundation Leicester & Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award
• The University of Arizona, Spring 2023
• Innovation in Teaching Award
• The University of Arizona College of Science, Fall 2022
• Racial Healing for Educators, Pan-Asian, Pacific Islander, & North African (PAPINA) Racial Healing Affinity Group Fellow
• The Teaching Well, Fall 2022
• David Lovelock Award for Innovation in Education
• The University of Arizona Department of Mathematics, Spring 2022
• Fellowship
• Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice (ITOC), Fellow 2020-2021, Summer 2020
• The Center for Inquiry and Equity in Mathematics, Fellow, 2019-2020, Spring 2019
• Mentor/Fellow
• NSF UArizona S-STEM Bridge Program, Fellow/Mentor, 2020-2022, Summer 2020
• Undergraduate STEM Education Teaching Excellence Award
• The University of Arizona AAU, Spring 2015
• International Congress on Mathematics Education Travel Grant
• National Science Foundation/National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Summer 2012
• College of Science Distinguished Early Career Teaching Award
• The University of Arizona, Spring 2012 (Award Nominee)
• National Science Foundation Service Teaching and Research STaR Fellow
• National Science Foundation, Summer 2010