Home | Maier Math Foundation

Our Mission

To inspire and enable all individuals to discover and develop their mathematical confidence and ability.

Inclusive

To emphasize each person’s capability to think mathematically.

Joyful

To celebrate the ability of math to infuse lives with wonder and insight.

Creative

To encourage novel ways to explore the world through math.

Approachable

To demystify math and reveal everyday ways to think about it.

Our Work

Materials Grant Program

Maier Math Foundation contributes to mathematics education by distributing high-quality supplemental classroom materials. Available now is Bridges Breakout: Number Rack with activities and tools to develop number and operation sense within 20, ideal for K–2 classrooms and intervention programs.

Curriculum and Equity

What role does curriculum have in creating an equitable classroom environment? That is the driving question of the Curriculum and Equity Program: bringing together developers, educators, and scholars to investigate the impact of curriculum materials in supporting culturally responsive elementary mathematics learning environments.

Math At Home

Math at Home is a website filled with thought-provoking math activities, games, and practice pages designed to engage pre-K to 5 students in deep mathematical thinking as they work in blended and virtual learning environments. These free resources are aligned to key mathematical concepts, with a monthly set of activities automatically switching to a new set at the beginning of each month.

Programs We Support

Maier Math Foundation proudly supports such vital academic programs as ALIVE—providing social-emotional and academic intervention to K-6 students in need—and AMTE (the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators): the largest professional organization devoted to the improvement of mathematics teacher education.

About Us

The Math Learning Center (MLC) saw a need to share with a broader audience— including parents and community members—more effective and relevant ways of understanding mathematical concepts through the use of visual models, inquiry methods, and learner-focused practices and activities. To meet this need MLC formed the Maier Math Foundation with a shared mission to inspire and enable individuals to discover and develop their mathematical confidence and ability.

The foundation also facilitates collaboration with researchers and other nonprofit organizations to pursue common objectives, such as bridging the gap between academic research and math educators, particularly in elementary school classrooms.

The Maier Math Foundation is named in honor of MLC co-founder, Professor Gene Maier. Dr. Maier’s novel ideas, engaging approach to math education, and genuine passion for teaching have inspired countless teachers and students as they embarked upon their life-long math journeys.

Who We Are

Steve Burt

Board Chair

Steve is an education technology strategist with nearly three decades of experience. As Director of Strategy for Clarity Innovations, he oversees the development of new client solutions. Prior to his work at Clarity, Steve was a high school principal and has received the Best of the Best Award at ISTE Conferences for three consecutive years.

Erika Fogarty

Board Secretary

As Director of Brand for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Erika develops experiential campaigns and digital content for Science, Education, and Community programs. Erika is also the co-founder of Talk A Mile: an organization that facilitates 1:1 conversations between Black youth and police trainees as they share their visions of their communities.

Dr. David Maier

Board Treasurer

David is Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technologies in the department of Computer Science at Portland State University. He is also the author of a number of books and papers covering everything from relational databases and logic programming to database theory, object-oriented technology, and scientific databases.

Rick Ludeman

President

Rick is Chief Executive Officer of The Math Learning Center and has masters’ degrees in business administration and adult education. Rick has also served as Adjunct Faculty at Portland State University, was an independent management consultant, and worked at Intel Corporation in finance, staffing, and communications.