2026 Susan Gay Travel Scholarship Recipient
Sumer Smith
Biography
Sumer Smith is a second-year doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Mathematics Education at the University of Louisville. Her emerging research interests include mathematics identity, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics teaching anxiety, with a focus on how these constructs develop in relation to individuals’ intersectional identities and, in teachers, how they relate to pedagogical content knowledge. Sumer has over a decade of experience as a K-5 classroom teacher and professional learning facilitator. In her current role as a regional consultant for the Kentucky Center for Mathematics (KCM), she designs and facilitates professional learning for elementary teachers and mentors teacher-participants in the KCM Numeracy Counts Academy, a two-year professional learning experience focused on developing pedagogical content knowledge for in-service Kentucky teachers.