Kathy Clemmer, Director and Founder
Born in Pasadena, California, Katharine Clemmer earned her Bachelor of Arts
degree in Russian with a minor in mathematics at the University of
California at Davis in 1983. She began teaching Russian and mathematics
to military personnel in 1984 where she found her core passion and
calling: teaching mathematics. This discovery led to her pursuit of a
Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, her Masters of Arts in teaching
Mathematics, and completion of her California Professional Clear Single
Subject Teaching Credential in Mathematics and Administrative
Credential, at Loyola Marymount University [LMU] in the 1990s.
Starting first at Pierce Community College in Washington as a Calculus
Instructor, Kathy is an award-winning educator who has demonstrated
excellence in a variety of positions, including a middle school and
high school teacher instructing all of the content areas in mathematics
from 7th grade mathematics through Calculus. She is a math consultant
in curriculum and instruction for primary, middle, and high schools,
writing curriculum, and designing and facilitating professional
development for teachers, parents, and administrators. She has worked
as a curriculum specialist for El Segundo Unified School District
aligning state and national standards to the curriculum, incorporating
technology, and successfully implementing this curriculum in the
schools within the district, resulting in an increase in student
standardized scores on both the college entrance exams and the state
achievement exams. Kathy is a professor at LMU teaching both the
secondary general education and special education courses for teaching
secondary mathematics in urban and non-urban schools. She also teaches
an introduction to teaching and learning course for secondary
candidates pursuing credentials in mathematics, science, English,
social science, and art. As she enters into her 14th year at LMU, she
remains intimately connected to the high school classroom by teaching
morning classes in Calculus and Pre-Calculus at El Segundo High School
before heading to LMU where she is full time clinical faculty. A
primary focus of Kathy’s current work as director of LMU’s Center for
Math and Science Teaching (CMAST) is teaching transformational teacher
leaders within educational communities to inspire and institutionalize
a culture of active teacher leadership within a school, organization,
and community by having the conviction that increasing student
engagement and achievement in mathematics and science throughout an
educational community is an attainable goal. Kathy is the author and
director of the LMU Math and Science Teaching (MAST) program, a program
she designed and implemented with great success in several schools in
the Los Angeles area. Kathy has received over a million dollars in
grant funding to pursue her passion of transforming math and science
teaching, first with the MAST program and currently with the Center for
Math and Science Teaching. In addition to establishing a reputation of
increasing test scores and student’s pursuit of STEM professions
wherever she goes, Kathy’s accomplishments include being chosen as the
El Segundo High School teacher of the year in 2000 and in 2003 and
teacher of the year within the entire El Segundo Unified School
District in 2000, being recognized by Mayor Richard Riordian in 1996,
1997, and 2000 as one of L.A.’s Most Inspirational Teachers as chosen
by the seniors at El Segundo High School, being honored by the
Association of California School Administrators [ACSA] and ACSA Region
14 for support, creativity, and expectations enabling at-risk students
to succeed, receiving an Award of Excellence from the University of
California at San Diego as an “Outstanding Teacher” 8 times within the
past 11 years, and writing and implementing a revised high school math
curriculum resulting in more students taking math classes at all
levels, entering universities in STEM fields, and evoking community
support and a commendation from the Mayor of El Segundo.