Term as President
February, 2015 to February, 2017
About Dr. Thomas (November, 2015)
Dr. Christine D. Thomas, president of AMTE, is a professor of mathematics education in the department of Middle and Secondary Education at Georgia State. Dr. Thomas has been active in AMTE as a long-term member. She has been a presenter at AMTE conferences, served on the AMTE annual program committee, and has served as committee member and two-term chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2008-2011) and as a member of the editorial panel of the NCTM journalMathematics Teacher (2007-2011). From 2007 to 2009 she served as co-chair of the steering committee of the North American Chapter of the International Group of the Psychology of Mathematics Education (2007-2009).
Dr. Thomas' research is grounded in developing, enhancing, and retaining effective teachers of mathematics in urban high-need schools. An ongoing specific focus of her research is the investigation of the influence of a sustained community of practice on the retention of mathematics teachers in urban high-need schools. Dr. Thomas has disseminated her research on teacher retention through publications and through national and international conference presentations. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. As principal investigator of the Robert Noyce Urban Mathematics Educator, Dr. Thomas’ project was recognized by the NSF for its influence on teacher retention in high-need schools. Dr. Thomas was also selected by the NSF to serve as mentor to newly funded principal investigators in the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholars program.
As president of AMTE, Dr. Thomas' goal is to further solidify AMTE as the premier organization promoting the improvement of mathematics teacher education through the dissemination of high-quality educational research and innovative models for teacher preparation and professional development, and through ongoing advocacy for high quality mathematics teaching.