Academic Credentials
B.A., M.Ed., University of Maryland
M.A.R., Westminster Theological Seminary
Ph.D., George Mason University
Biography
Dr. Alice E. Petillo conducts research in the area of mathematics education. She earned her Ph.D. at George Mason University and holds a Virginia Postgraduate Professional License in Mathematics and Spanish. She has long-term experience teaching mathematics at the secondary and undergraduate levels.
Dr. Petillo is particularly interested in helping pre-service teachers students develop a positive relationship with mathematics and experience its beauty, power, and utility. She conducts research on the transformative power of out-of-classroom informal learning events such as STEM Festivals. She has presented and written about the results of her research at local and international meetings.
Dr. Petillo is committed to helping students develop a positive relationship with mathematics and experience its beauty, power, and utility. Having developed two courses using a co-requisite model, she conducts research to demonstrate its effectiveness in improving college retention and graduation rates. She engages in cross-curricular approaches, in the past having designed a university-wide Math, Art, Fashion event. She currently collaborates with the nursing program to support mandated math proficiency. She is a regular presenter at regional and international conferences sharing teaching resources, activities and educational tools. Her mission is to support students having experiences with current applications of mathematical topics in their undergraduate classes
Teaching Area
- Statistical Analysis
- Geometry
- History of Mathematics
Research Interests
- Cross-curricular Applications of Mathematics
- Co-requisite Remediation
- Informal Learning
Presentations
Conference Presentation: “Mathemalchemy: Student Experiences at the National Academy of Sciences.” MAA MDDCVA Spring Sectional Meeting 2025. George Mason University VA.
Publications
Valcourt, M, Smith D, Petillo, A., and Caufield, E. (2023) Improving Nursing Student’s Confidence with Dosage. Calculation After Implantation of a Comprehensive Teaching Strategy. Int J Nurs Health Care Res 6: 1447. DOI: 10.29011/2688-9501.101447
Anuszkiewicz, M. and Petillo, A. Remedial Mathematics: Speed Bump or Access Ramp for College Completion? (2022) Co-requisite Remediation: An Access Ramp for College Completion, PRIMUS, DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2022.2073622
Peercy, M. M., Alkandil, D., Caufman, R., Hudson, S., Lane, S., Petillo, A. E., Reeves, E., & Sonnier, A. (2018). “Standing in a messy sandpit”: The learning side of self-study research, pp. 259-273. In Ritter, J. K., Lunenberg, M., Pithouse-Morgan, K., Samaras, A. P., & Vanassche, E., (Eds.) Teaching, learning, and enacting self-study research. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Refereed Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings
Valcourt, M., Petillo, A., Smith, D., Caulfield, El, Fluellen, K., Drapp, J. (2021, October 21-22). BSN Nursing Students’ from a Hispanic Student Serving Institution’s Confidence Levels with Medication Dosage Calculations after the Implementation of a Comprehensive Teaching Strategy, 12th Annual McGinley-Rice Symposium: The Face of the Person who is Poor.
Petillo, A. E. and Kasparian, R. J. (2017). Introducing the Kasparian Constructions. In Swart, D., Séquin, C., & Fenyvesi, K. (Eds.). Proceedings 2017 Bridges Waterloo: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture. Paper presented at the 2017 Bridges Waterloo: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture (pp. 511-514). Phoenix, AZ: Tessellations Publishing.
Petillo, A. E. (2015). Connecting with the Sierpinski Tetrahedron. In Bosch, R., McKenna, D., & Sarhangi, R. (Eds.). Proceedings 2015 Bridges Baltimore: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture. Paper presented at the 2015 Bridges Baltimore: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture. (pp.589-592). Phoenix, AZ: Tessellations Publishing.
Suh, J., Seshaiyer, P., Apollon, M., Gerasimova, D., King, L., Matson, K. and Petillo, A. (2015) Implementing the core teaching practices to make mathematical thinking visible using student-generated models. In Bartell, T. G., Bieda, K. N., Putnam, R. T., Bradfield, K., & Dominguez, H. (Eds.). Proceedings of the 37th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Paper presented at the Psychology of Mathematics Education North American Chapter. (pp. 1165-1168). East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University.
Other publications
2019 Association for Women in Mathematics newsletter pages 24-25 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eQCI-H-12Tj7j3Iq78SeTy1INkoTa_g3/view
2019 MAA Focus magazine News article June/July 2019 page 12 http://digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com/publication/?i=591769#{“issue_id”:591769,”view”:”contentsBrowser”}
2019 MAA Reviews (dated 10/13/2019). Book review: Hollings, Martin and Rice. Ada Lovelace: The Making of a Computer Scientist. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, 2018 128 pages https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/ada-lovelace-the-making-of-a-computer-scientist
2019 MAA Reviews (dated 5/19/2019). Book review: Bongiorno, Benedetto and Curbera, Guillermo P. Giovanni Battista Guccia. Springer International Publishing, 2017 301 pages https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/giovanni-battista-guccia
Professional Affliations
Mathematical Association of America MAA
- Special Interest Group on History of Mathematics (SIGMAA-HOM)
- Special Interest Group on Math and the Arts (SIGMAA-ARTS)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics NCTM
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
Link to CV […]
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