About our authors
Michael Sullivan, III has training in mathematics, statistics and economics, with a varied teaching background that includes 27 years of instruction in both high school and college-level mathematics. He is currently a full-time professor of mathematics at Joliet Junior College. Michael has numerous textbooks in publication, including an Introductory Statistics series and a Precalculus series which he writes with his father, Michael Sullivan.
Michael believes that his experiences writing texts for college-level math and statistics courses give him a unique perspective as to where students are headed once they leave the developmental mathematics tract. This experience is reflected in the philosophy and presentation of his developmental text series. When not in the classroom or writing, Michael enjoys spending time with his 3 children, Michael, Kevin and Marissa, and playing golf. Now that his 2 sons are getting older, he has the opportunity to do both at the same time!
Kathy Struve has been a classroom teacher for nearly 35 years, first at the high-school level and for the past 27 years at Columbus State Community College. Kathy embraces classroom diversity: of students' ages, learning styles and previous learning success. She is aware of the challenges of teaching mathematics at a large, urban community college, where students have varied mathematics backgrounds and may enter college with a high level of mathematics anxiety.
Kathy served as Lead Instructor of the Developmental Algebra sequence at Columbus State, where she developed curriculum, conducted workshops and provided leadership to adjunct faculty in the mathematics department. She embraces the use of technology in instruction and has taught online and hybrid classes as well as traditional face-to-face and emporium-style classes. She is always looking for ways to fully involve students in the learning process. In her spare time Kathy enjoys spending time with her 2 adult daughters and her 4 granddaughters, biking, hiking and traveling with her husband.
Janet Mazzarella was born and raised in San Diego County, and spent her career teaching in culturally and economically diverse high schools before taking a position at Southwestern College 25 years ago. Janet has taught a wide range of mathematics courses, from arithmetic through calculus for math/science/engineering majors, and has training in mathematics, education, engineering and accounting.
Janet has worked to incorporate technology into the curriculum by participating in the development of Interactive Math and Math Pro. At Southwestern College, she helped develop the self-paced developmental mathematics program. In addition, Janet was the Dean of the School of Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, the Chair of the Mathematics Department, the faculty union president, and the faculty coordinator for Intermediate Algebra. In the past, free time consisted of racing motorcycles off-road in the Baja 500 and rock climbing, but recently she has given up the adrenaline rush of these activities for the thrill of traveling in Europe.
Jessica Bernards (Contributor) has been teaching mathematics since 2005. She began her career at the high-school level and then transitioned to teaching at Portland Community College in 2010. She has taught a wide range of mathematics courses from Developmental Math up to Calculus and has created curriculum for all of these levels. Additionally, Jessica is a member of AMATYC's Project ACCCESS Cohort 9 where she developed a Math Study Skills Program which is now used across the nation. In 2017, she was the honored recipient of the Leila and Simon Peskoff AMATYC Award for her work with Project ACCCESS.
When not working, Jessica loves spending time with her husband and 2 boys in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys running races, cooking and hiking, and is also an active member of her community, coordinating a neighborhood group that brings local moms together.
Wendy Fresh (Contributor) has been a full-time instructor at Portland Community College since 1997 and has taught a wide range of classes from Developmental Math through Calculus, both on campus and online. Before teaching at PCC, Wendy began her teaching career in 1992, teaching high school at both rural and urban schools. Her love of creating curriculum to make the classroom come alive has led her to working with technologies that can be incorporated into her many courses.
She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics Education from the University of Oregon and her Master's Degree in the Teaching of Mathematics from Portland State University. When not teaching, Wendy loves hanging out at home with her husband and 2 college age “kids”. In addition, she enjoys running, gardening, watching soccer and reading.