Greenes to orchestrate School of Educational Innovation and Teacher Preparation’s future


MESA, Ariz. - Arizona State University is pleased to announce the appointment of Carole Greenes to lead the School of Educational Innovation and Teacher Preparation at ASU’s Polytechnic campus. As the dean, she will continue to build the School as a free-standing unit and develop strong mathematics and science education programs for current and future teachers. Greenes also will be directing the Practice, Research and Innovation in Mathematics Education (PRIME) Center that will be located on the Polytechnic campus.

Greenes, currently a professor of mathematics education at Boston University, has an extensive history in K-12 and higher education in mathematics and mathematics education. She has authored more than 300 books and programs for students in pre-kindergarten through Grade 12, for college students, and for teachers.

“In order for the state to compete in a global economy, our pre-kindergarten through 12th grade teachers and students need to be well prepared in and excited about science and math,” says ASU President Michael Crow. “Dr. Greenes’ experience will be instrumental in bringing a new energy and perspective to math and science education that will benefit both the state and ASU.”

Elizabeth D. Capaldi, executive vice president and university provost, adds that Greenes’s experience and knowledge fits well in a polytechnic learning environment and her skills will help build education programs fitting the polytechnic profile for current and future students.

“Dr. Greenes’s expertise in mathematics education will enable us to teach mathematics to future teachers more effectively, and enable us to produce teachers of mathematics and science who enjoy these subjects and know how to teach them. We expect the Polytechnic campus to be a major producer of mathematics and science teachers under Dr. Greenes’s leadership. This is a great need in the state of Arizona,” says Capaldi.

At Boston University, Greenes has held academic and administrative positions of increasing responsibility. She has served as an assistant dean for academic programs and the Chelsea Project in the School of Education; associate dean for research, development and advanced academic programs; and dean of overseas programs.

The Chelsea Project, a unique partnership between a university and a school district is one of Greenes’s largest endeavors. In 1987-88, Greenes headed a committee to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the district and prepared a 10-year plan to upgrade education in the Chelsea Public Schools. Boston University took over management of the school district in 1989. Based on requests from the city, the partnership has been extended and is currently in its 19th year.

“I spent 15 years on the management team for the district and continue to work in the schools to improve teaching in all subjects,” says Greenes. “I am looking forward to working with faculty, students and families in the school districts surrounding the Polytechnic campus, as well as with faculty and students in the new charter school being developed through ASU’s University Public Schools Initiative. I’m impressed with the talents and energy of the colleagues I will be joining. I’m excited to help build and implement education programs for ASU and the innovation-oriented Polytechnic campus.”

Currently, Greenes is editor of the National Council of Teachers (NCTM) 2008 yearbook Algebra and Algebraic Thinking in School Mathematics, member of the NCTM steering committee for the Navigations Series, editor of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) Monograph Series for Leaders in Mathematics Education, and a member of several advisory boards, including Focus on Mathematics, Upward Bound, Mathematics Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools, and the Children’s Museum Traveling Exhibit in Science and Mathematics. In addition, she is a member of several professional organizations specifically relating to mathematics and/or education. Greenes is a former president of NCSM. In 2003, she was inducted into the Massachusetts Mathematics Educators Hall of Fame.

When she is not working, she enjoys playing the piano and writing lyrics. She has written and performed Mathematics Musical Mysteries as well as musicals relating mathematics to history.

She earned her Doctor of Education degree in mathematics education from Boston University and a bachelor of arts in English studies and music from the University of Michigan.

Greenes will replace Gail Hackett, interim dean for the School, on Oct. 22.