Glenda T. Lappan (born 1939) is a

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of mathematics at Michigan State University. She is known for her work in

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although re ...

and in particular for developing the widely used Connected Mathematics curriculum for middle school mathematics in the US..

Education and career

Lappan grew up as an only child on a farm in southern Georgia. She did her undergraduate studies at

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 s ...

, graduating in 1961, and taught at the high school level in Georgia before completing a doctorate at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

in 1965. She taught at Michigan State for 50 years, from 1965 until her retirement in 2015. From 1986 to 1991, Lappan directed the middle school portion of a project by the

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds an ...

to set curriculum and evaluation standards for mathematics. Following that work, she began the Connected Mathematics Project, initially envisioned as a five-year effort to implement the NCTM standards. She served as president of the NCTM from 1998 to 2000, and later as chair of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the National Academy of Sciences..

Awards and honors

In 1996 the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

gave her their

Louise Hay Award The Louise Hay Award is a mathematics award established in 1990 by the Association for Women in Mathematics in recognition of contributions as a math educator. The award was created in honor of Louise Hay. Recipients The following women have been ...

.. She was named a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State in 1998. In 2002, the Connected Mathematics project endowed the Lappan-Phillips-Fitzgerald Endowed Chair in Mathematics Education at Michigan State, named after Lappan and the other two founders of the project. The

gave her a lifetime achievement award in 2004. In 2008 she and Elizabeth Phillips shared the International Society for Design and Development in Education Prize for Excellence in Educational Design for their work on Connected Mathematics.. She was inducted into the

Michigan Women's Hall of Fame The Michigan Women's Hall of Fame (MWHOF) honors distinguished women, both historical and contemporary, who have been associated with the U.S. state of Michigan. The hall of fame was founded in 1983 by Gladys Beckwith and is sponsored by the Michi ...

in 2009..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lappan, Glenda 1939 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Mercer University alumni University of Georgia alumni 21st-century American mathematicians