Megan Cavanah/Author

College attended: Western Carolina University and Florida State University

Colleges where you have taught: Polk State College

Advice for students taking a math class: Know your resources. In addition to your classmates and instructor, there are a lot of resources that come with your textbook and on your campus! 

Charles P. McKeague/Owner, Author, Video Tutor

Colleges attended: California State University, Northridge and Brigham Young University

Colleges where you have taught: Cuesta College, Cal Poly SLO

2007 awarded the AMATYC Presidential Award
2015 awarded the Herb Gross Lifetime Achievement Award

Advice for new teachers: Try new things that interest you. Be accommodating when your colleagues try new things. Join AMATYC and any local community college organizations in your state, then start thinking of presentations you can give at conferences. My teaching improved when I started giving presentations.

Favorite pastime: Putting videos on YouTube and reading the comments people make.

Favorite vacation: Going to Hawaii with the grandkids!

Favorite class to teach? Elementary Algebra, Business Calculus, and Trigonometry

Pets or kids? Two children, seven grandchildren.

Mona Panchal/Author

College attended: University of California, Irvine and California State University, Los Angeles

Colleges where you have taught:  Citrus College, Whittier College, East Los Angeles College

Advice for students taking a math class: Get to know your professor and ask questions!

Favorite pastime: A cup of coffee with my husband!

Favorite vacation: New York City or India

Favorite class to teach: Calculus 2 and Statistics

Pets or kids? 2 daughters, Zaara 5, Meera 4; hopefully, a dog one day!

Fun Fact:  Prior to teaching, Mona began her career at Loma Linda Medical Center as a physicist, programming and operating a proton accelerator to treat cancer patients.

Mark Turner/Author

College attended: CSU Fullerton, Cal Poly SLO

Colleges where you have taught: Cal Poly SLO, Allan Hancock College, Cuesta College

Advice for new teachers: Experiment! Find out what works for you. Let your personality come out in the classroom. Find a good balance between teaching, home life, and your personal hobbies/pursuits. Talk with your colleagues...a lot! Go to the AMATYC annual conference.

Favorite thing about working for XYZ Textbooks: Smart, friendly people. Very supportive in completing textbook projects. Academic freedom and complete trust in my expertise.

Favorite pastime: The beach.

Favorite class to teach: Intermediate Algebra

Pets/kids: No pets, 2 daughters.

Favorite quote: "There is no spoon."

Alan S. Tussy/Author

College attended: The University of Redlands and California State University, Los Angeles

Colleges where you have taught:  Citrus College in Glendora, California

Favorite pastime: I enjoy watching sports (football, baseball, and basketball on TV) and working out at LA Fitness.

Favorite vacation: We have a vacation home in Bear Bear Lake, California, and spend virtually all of our vacation days there.

Favorite class to teach: Prealgebra

Favorite website: iTunes

Pets: Our dog, Desi, is a very important member of our family. He is a Havanese breed (the national dog of Cuba) and is named after Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame. Desi is very smart and will do just about anything for a dog treat.

Esmeralda Medrano/Author

Colleges attended:  East Los Angeles College, UCLA, California State University, Los Angeles and earned an Education Leadership Doctorate from California State University, Fullerton.

Colleges where you have taught: Citrus College in Glendora, California

Advice for students taking a math class: Read the book, stay ahead, and ask questions.

Favorite pastime: Building jigsaw puzzles

Favorite vacation: Cancun

Pets or kids? One daughter – Ariana. Two pets – Luna and Chepie

Fun Fact:  Early in her teaching career, Esmeralda was an instructor in the Jaime Escalante Math program. As depicted in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, it is a unique program that offers mathematics classes to traditionally disadvantaged inner-city middle and high school students from communities surrounding East Los Angeles.

Revathi Narasimhan/Author

College attended: Ph.D University of Maryland, College Park; Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Arizona State University

Schools where you have taught: Saint Peter's College (previous) and Kean University (current)

Advice for students taking a math class: Do all your homework, attend class and be familiar with all the course policies. Communicate with your instructor.

Advice for new teachers: Take time to communicate and interact with students in your classroom. Once you write something on the board, stand back and move closer to the students. Makes them feel less intimidated (and they can see what you wrote!)

Favorite class to teach: Math for business majors

Pets or kids: 2 sons, ages 16 and 10

Favorite website: Amazon

Random fact: Been known to wake up right before the crack of dawn to chase away the deer in my garden!

Denny Burzynski/Author

College attended: California State University, Long Beach

College (s) where you have taught: Glendale Community College, West Valley College in Saratoga, and The College of Southern Nevada.

Things I enjoy: I like surf guitar music by less well-known groups such as the Duo-tones, The Surf Coasters, the Blue Hawaiians, and the Vara-tones. I enjoyed the very surprising result in the TED Talk Sean Gourley on the mathematics of war. 

Pets or kids? I have a daughter, Sandy, who is an anthropologist and rescues rabbits, and a son-in-law, Kent,who is a lighting engineer. I have a cat named Bones, Phd.

Favorite quote: Each semester at West Valley College in the Silicon Valley the math faculty would choose schedules for the next semester. When we were done constructing our schedules Wade Ellis would always say "We teach community college mathematics, there is no such thing as a bad schedule."

Bruce Yoshiwara/Author

College attended: UCLA

College (s) where you have taught: Los Angeles Pierce College, Barnsley College (Yorkshire, England)

Advice for Students taking a math class: Do not be afraid of making mistakes, because we learn more when we make and recognize mistakes than by being correct. A mistake only means that we haven't yet attained full mastery.

Pets or kids? I'm the "back-up human" for the two cats in the household

Favorite quote: "Good teachers deserve apples; great teachers deserve chocolate." -Richard Hamming

Kathy Yoshiwara/Author

College attended: Michigan State, UCLA

College (s) where you have taught: Los Angeles Pierce College, Barnsley College (Yorkshire, England), Compton College, and Santa Monica College

Advice for Students taking a math class: Be prepared to think in new ways. Do not be afraid of making mistakes, but be willing to read and think on your own before asking for help.

Advice for new teachers: Lecture as little as possible. Spend your energy devising ways for students to engage with their textbook, their fellow students, and problem solving

Favorite activity: Floating on my air raft in Saginaw Bay.

Favorite class to teach? Multivariable calculus

Favorite website: icanhas.cheezburger.com/

Pets or kids? Two cats: Miso and Nori

Ross Rueger/Author

College attended: UC Riverside , UCLA

College (s) where you have taught: University of Minnesota, Duluth, College of the Sequoias

Advice for Students taking a math class: Keep up with your homework!

Advice for new teachers: Don't sweat the small details, focus on the major concepts.

Favorite thing about working for XYZ Textbooks: Cheap textbooks!

Favorite song: Cortez the Killer (Neil Young) and 2112 (Rush)

Favorite class to teach? Precalculus

Pets or kids? 2 kids (grown), 7 dogs + occasional fox, coyote, and possum

Favorite quote: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." -John Lennon

Judy Barclay/Author

College attended: SUNY Cortland and University of Massachusetts

College (s) where you have taught: Pelham H.S., Sill Jr. H. S., Cuesta College, Tompkins-Cortland Community College

Advice for Students taking a math class: Don't get behind in your math class. Get help as soon as you start to have problems. Always keep up with your homework.

Advice for new teachers: Be prepared!

Pets or kids? 2 daughters and 4 grandchildren