Marcia Peterson Sward (February 1, 1939 – September 21, 2008) was an American
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
and
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
administrator
Administrator or admin may refer to:
Job roles Computing and internet
* Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database
* Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum
* N ...
. She had a varied career as a teacher and an administrator of mathematical organizations, culminating in the position of executive director of the
Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...
. After retirement she started a new career in
environmental education
Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating discipli ...
, specializing in children's programs such as
GreenKids.
Life and education
Sward was born Marcia Ruth Peterson in
Maywood, Illinois
Maywood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, in the Chicago metropolitan area. It was founded on April 6, 1869, and organized October 22, 1881. The population was 23,512 at the 2020 census.
History
There was limited European-Am ...
on February 1, 1939.
She received a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
from
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...
in 1961. She received a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in 1963 and a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in mathematics in 1967 from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...
. Her PhD thesis was written under Edward J. Scott and titled ''The Mixed Boundary Value Problem Along the Line of Parabolicity for a Certain Class of Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations''.
Sward died in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, on September 21, 2008.
Work
Sward was unable to get an academic job immediately after receiving her PhD, and worked as a
housemother
Housemother was a job in British children's homes from the 1940s onwards. Housemothers were responsible for small groups of children living in children's homes. They lived in the same accommodation as the children, and in the first decades of th ...
at
Catholic University
Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univers ...
in Washington, D.C.
She then received an appointment at
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in Washington, D.C., and worked there from 1968 to 1980 and was department head from 1979 to 1980.
Sward then switched in mid-career from
academic
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
to
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dir ...
. She stated in an interview with ''Association Management'' magazine that one reason was a low threshold of boredom, but also emphasized the need to stretch one's skills. She said, "As a professor I really didn't manage anything. The focus was on the intellectual work. So when I switched to association management, I had to learn how to manage programs, delegate, work with committees, raise money, work with budgets."
Her first executive position was as the first Associate Executive Director of the
Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...
. Among the duties of the newly created position were directing the organization's three journals and creating a newsletter that turned out to be ''
MAA Focus
''MAA FOCUS'' is the newsmagazine of the Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university ...
''. Sward became the newsletter's first editor and held that position for the remainder of her time as Associate Executive Director.
She left the MAA in September 1985 to become the first executive director of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the
United States National Research Council
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), also known as the National Academies, is a congressionally chartered organization that serves as the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name i ...
, then returned in 1989 as executive director of the MAA upon the retirement of Alfred B. Willcox. During this time she helped create many new programs, for example
Project NExT
MAA Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) is a program sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) to aid in the professional development of mathematicians, statisticians, and mathematics educators after they receive their PhD ...
, for which she persuaded
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...
to provide funding. She worked with Ed Dubinsky to develop
Special Interest Group
A special interest group (SIG) is a community within a larger organization with a shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to effect or to produce solutions within their particular f ...
s inside MAA.
She received the Citation for Public Service from the Council of the
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
in 1992.
[
]
In 1999 Sward retired from the executive director position and spent a year sailing in
The Bahamas
The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...
. She switched careers again to work with the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation as senior director for education and environment and then in 2004 became Deputy Executive Director of the
Audubon Naturalist Society of the Central Atlantic States.
She led their Environmental Education department until her death in 2008. During her time there she worked to get the ANS Nature Preschool started, began the GreenKids program (an
outreach
Outreach is the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. A key component of outreach is that the group providing it is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, it involves meetin ...
program that sends
naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
s to
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, Maryland ...
, schools), and helped start the Loudoun Environmental Stewardship Alliance. She was influenced by
Richard Louv
Richard Louv (born 1949) is an American non-fiction author and journalist. He is best known for his seventh book, '' Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder'' (first published in 2005 by Algonquin Books of Chapel ...
's book ''
Last Child in the Woods'' to work on projects that made a difference in the lives of children.
Selected publications
*
Notes
Further reading
* Obituary with reminiscences from many of Sward's coworkers at the Mathematical Association of America
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sward, Marcia P.
1939 births
2008 deaths
American environmentalists
American women environmentalists
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
American women business executives
American nonprofit executives
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Vassar College alumni
Trinity Washington University faculty
American women academics
20th-century American women scientists
People from Maywood, Illinois
20th-century American women mathematicians
21st-century American women mathematicians
Mathematicians from Illinois