FACULTY
Alessandra Pantano
Director of UC Irvine Math CEO
Alessandra Pantano is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Mathematics Department at UC Irvine. Her research interests are in representation theory and in math education. She enjoys teaching and doing community outreach. She is also very committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in academia, and beyond.
Li-Sheng Tseng
Co-Director of UC Irvine Math CEO
Li-Sheng Tseng is an Asscciate Professor in Mathematics at UC Irvine and does research in geometry/topology and physics.
Andres Forero
Academic Coordinator
Andres Forero is a Academic Coordinator of Math CEO. He is a passionate and creative teacher and loves to use different resources to guide students to learning. His hometown is Bogota, Colombia. He obtained his PhD in UC Irvine in 2015. His research area is Inner Model Theory, a branch of Set Theory in which models of set are built in a very specific way.
Luke Smith
Coordinator of High School Program and Undergraduate Mentors
Luke Smith is a Lecturer of Mathematics at UC Irvine. He also earned his PhD at UC Irvine in 2015. Luke has done research in Number Theory and Algebra, but also enjoys probability, combinatorics, and any field of math with fun puzzles. To him, math is most fun when he can show students these fun puzzles for the first time. His other math hobbies involve drawing fractals, space transformations, and other generative art.
Kenny Ascher
Faculty Mentor, High School Program
Kenny Ascher is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at UC Irvine. He obtained his PhD from Brown University in 2017 and was a postdoc at MIT and Princeton University. His research interests are algebraic and arithmetic geometry.
Yizhe Zhu
Faculty Mentor, High School Program
Yizhe Zhu is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at UC Irvine. He obtained his PhD from UC San Diego in 2021. His research interests are probability, combinatorics, and data science.
Shoo Seto
Faculty Mentor, High School Program
Shoo Seto is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at California State University, Fullerton. He obtained his PhD in Mathematics at UC Irvine in 2015. His research interests lie in differential geometry and geometric analysis. He is also the Co-Coordinator of the Fullerton Math Circle.
Jonathan Delgado
Graduate Mentor and Coordinator
Jonathan Delgado is a second year PhD student at UCI interested in geometry and analysis and their applications to mathematical physics. Outside of work he enjoys playing videos and working in mathematics outreach to share the fun and beautiful parts of math to others.
STUDENT LEADERSHIP
Weihan Shao
Mentorship Supervisor
Weihan Shao is a pure mathematics major at University of California, Irvine, with an anticipated graduation date of Spring 2022. He is currently interested in Topology, Graph Theory, and Geometry, and has previously done research in Topological Data Analysis.
ADVISERS/COLLABORATORS
Amylene Cabrera
Special Advisor in Planning, Teaching, and Mentoring
Amylene (Amy) Cabrera is a Mathematics teacher at Fallbrook High School in San Diego. She got her Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and a Secondary Teaching Credential with the UCI Calteach program. She worked with Math CEO as a mentor and a room leader from 2017-2019. She also is former president of the UCI Swing club and loves to swing dance.
Shavonne Donoghue
Special Advisor, Teaching and Mentoring
Shavonne Donoghue is a Math Teacher at Fallbrook High School, in North County San Diego. She received her Bachelors of Science in Applied Mathematics with an emphasis in Education from UC Riverside. She loves to share the beauty of math with her students.
Randie Levine-Williams
Randie Levine-Williams is a retired math teacher. She received her BA in Mathematics from UCLA and her MA in Education from University of Redlands. She also spent twelve years in computer sales and marketing. Her goal as a teacher has always been to create a fun, cooperative-learning environment utilizing hands-on activities.
SCHOOL TEACHER PARTNERS
Fernando Gutierrez
Lathrop Intermediate
Fernando Gutierrez is a Math teacher at Lathrop Intermediate. He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and attended SAUSD as a student and graduated from Saddleback High School in 2000. He majored in Mathematics at UCR has been teaching for 15 years and loves it!!!
Ruth Karr
Villa Fundamental Intermediate
Ruth Karr is a UCLA, USC, and UCI alumna. She has been a K-12 teacher for 17 years, whilst also being a coordinator of Math CEO for 5 years, coaching for the math pentathlon competition for 12 years, directing the pentathlon for 10, and residing on the AVID site counsel for 5 years. Her tenure as an educator also includes teaching accounting for 8 years in the University of Hawaii System. Her teaching ability is built on her 20 years of experience in the accounting industry, as well as being a liaison between accounting and IT departments for various businesses
Jasmina Matasovic
Carr Intermediate
Jasmina Matasovic is the Coordinator of the UCI STEMath Club at Carr Intermediate School in Santa Ana. She teaches Math at Carr and holds graduate degree from UCLA and Teaching Credential from UCI.
In Memoriam
Shelley Fox
Fallbrook High School
Shelley Fox taught Integrated Math 1 and was a part of Math CEO in 2020-2022. She was passionate about connecting math to the world outside of school. Outside of school she loved to ride e-bikes with friends, read at the beach, cook international foods, and learn to code in Python.