A Fresh Take on Math

A Northeast native and former college baseball player, Marty taught nearly every high school math class at a Boston charter school and coached two varsity sports teams. He also coached and created curriculum for middle school and high school teachers.

Marty loves creating math curriculum that helps students discover their own brilliance and build confidence in their analytic abilities. This passion led him to fellowships with Math for America and Stanford’s Hollyhock program.

He is excited to work with the STEMscopes Math team to continue delivering rigorous, constructivist materials for teachers and students across the country.

Bonnie Duhé has a Masters in Educational Administration from Lamar University and 10 years of teaching experience. Bonnie now operates as STEMscopes Math’s Senior Manager of Math Development.

Bonnie loves the creativity involved in STEM education and always puts students at the center of learning, while giving them the opportunity to learn through hands-on, exploratory activities. She creates math programs about students solving problems and truly understanding the ““why”” behind the content.

When she is not dedicating her time and passion to math, Bonnie enjoys traveling and carving out time to sleep while raising her two children, Harris and Camille.

Carly Findley is accredited with a BA in Business Administration, an EC-4 Teacher Certification, and certifications in ESL and GT. Carly began her career as a Resource Paraprofessional while completing her teaching certification, and went on to spend 13 years teaching 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade.

Today, Carly serves as STEMscopes’ K-2 expert and project manager for Texas and Common Core K-2. Carly’s passion for teaching comes from witnessing the special “ah-ha” moment when her students finally understand a problem. In her eyes, math is never about the right answer, but how you get to that answer. Her number one goal as an educator is to instill her love for math in every student. She carries that love and passion to our math product.

Stanley comes to us with a combined 11 years of experience teaching high school biology in both Houston and Katy ISD. He now operates as our Piloting Manager, crafting Explores and preparing them to be classroom ready.

To him the most rewarding part of being a STEM educator is the noticeable impact he witnesses on the next generation. He believes that by investing in the education of students we can lay the foundation for a better society in the future. Stanley sees himself as an excited life-long student who never stops learning as the STEM field continues to develop at an exponential rate.

An experienced elementary and middle school teacher, Laura Meyers holds a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Middle School Mathematics. As a teacher, Laura worked with her school district to create training materials and sessions to analyze and track student data to help students with growth in learning.

Today, she works as STEMscopes’ project manager for 6-8th grade. She reviews, writes material, and works alongside contractors. Laura’s greatest joy as an educator comes from seeing her students’ excitement over making connections while problem-solving.

Laura is happily married with two precious little boys.

Marleena Payne has a Masters of Education in Education Technology from Lamar University and 14 years of education experience, having served as a middle school mathematics teacher, pre-engineering teacher, math instructional coach, Title 1 Compliance Coordinator, Tutorial Coordinator, and Gifted and Talented Coordinator.

As a dedicated member of our curriculum team, Marleena helped kickstart the Common Core K-2 project and is currently the Texas 6-8 Project Manager. She has also supported STEMscopes Math by creating virtual learning videos to support K-5 Math Instruction.

Marleena finds joy in being a STEM educator because she is able to develop a curriculum that provides students hands-on experiences solving real-world math problems. Her passion for mathematics stems from her understanding of math as the universal language that connects us around the world. This love for math carries into her home, where she and her high school Engineering teacher husband run what they call a STEM house.

Jason has Masters of Education in Instructional Design and Technology along with an education career spanning 10 years. He began his career in a small rural district in West Texas, where he taught middle school science and technology applications. From there, he taught in Katy ISD as a fourth grade math, science, and social studies teacher. Here at STEMscopes, Jason is responsible for the creation of our Teacher Planning Companions and other teacher resources that appear throughout the curriculum.

Jason finds great joy in watching students engage with STEM material, explore new content, and learn on a deep level for the first time. Jason sees himself as a science student and a math teacher, as he enjoys learning scientific concepts, but math fits more with the way his mind works. Science provides the exploration he craves, but math provides the answers. The true beauty of STEM for him emerges when he brings it all together in real-world application.

Samla Velazquez is a bilingual math generalist with a Bachelors in Applied Learning and Development and has experience teaching math in grades 2-5. Samla joined our team at STEMscopes as a writer for Texas Math 3-5 and later worked as a Project Manager for both Common Core 3-5 and Florida K-5.

Samla finds joy watching her students grow in new-found confidence as they discover their own way of thinking and problem-solving. She also loves how math encourages curiosity and questions. All of the math that we now use started because we wanted to understand something about our world. There’s something magical about that.

In her spare time Samla can be found on the local karaoke stage or at home in a dance battle with her toddler twins.

Growing up in a family of educators, Claire Want was determined to pursue a different path, but the call to the classroom still found her. Claire now has a Master’s degree in Elementary Education and several years of classroom experience teaching secondary mathematics. Her enthusiasm for creating engaging, student-centered math lessons blossomed into leading colleagues down the same path.

After serving on the 6-8 Math Advisory Board, Claire knew she wanted to be part of creating a student-centered secondary curriculum. Here at STEMscopes Math, she assisted the Florida K-5 Math Product development and is the Project Manager for Texas and Common Core Algebra products.

Claire knows that students struggle with secondary mathematics, so she builds her programs on the concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) process. This method encourages students to solve problems using inventive strategies that make sense to them.

Jill Lucero lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with her husband, Matt, and two children, Niko and Elena. Jill taught in the classroom as a 4th and 5th grade math and science teacher and provided math interventions to kindergarten through 5th grade students as a Title Math Specialist. Before joining Accelerate Learning, Jill was an Elementary Math District Instructional Coach.

Jill serves as STEMscopes’ 3-5 expert and project manager for the development of 3-5 math curriculum. Jill has presented professional development at a variety of regional, state, and national conferences. Jill’s presentations have been featured in a number of STEMposium conferences where she prioritizes honoring the M in STEM. Her current passion includes promoting the beauty and love of mathematics through curriculum and technology.