Our Board

Our board of directors represents the diversity of Cambridge and our community. Our directors are scientists, engineers, educators, and entrepreneurs. They are united by a passion of helping kids of all backgrounds have access to high-quality enrichment mathematics.

Board of Directors

Fetiya Omer

Fetiya Omer (she/her) received her BSN from UMass Boston and is currently working as a nurse at BIDMC and McLean. Her two kids were enrolled in Math Circle when they were younger. Math Circle gave her kids great opportunities to learn math in depth.

Hari P. Thadakamalla

Hari P. Thadakamalla (he/him) holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Madras, as well as a Master's degree in Mathematics and a PhD in Operations Research from the Pennsylvania State University. His passion lies in using mathematics and algorithms to tackle complex business problems. Currently, he leads a team that uses state of art AI algorithms to develop defect metrics for Alexa. Before this, he managed teams of Data Scientists at Tripadvisor, where he oversaw projects related to personalization, recommendations, and revenue optimization. Beyond his work, Hari is also passionate about education and has taught Machine Learning at the General Assembly for several semesters.

Joshua Greene

Joshua Greene (he/him) received his bachelor’s and master's degrees from Harvard in mathematics. He has spent the majority of his professional career in financial markets, including investment management and consulting to large international banks. Joshua's current focus is on investment projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Joshua's commitment to math education stems from his own formative educational experiences, especially two summers in the PROMYS program at Boston University. He has organized and led math circles and mathematical games classes in the UK, Thailand, and the US.

Leandro Vetcher, MBA

Leandro Vetcher (he/him) earned an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters in Biotechnology from Columbia University, and a Licentiate in Biotechnology from Rosario National University in Argentina. He has over 15 years of leadership experience in early-stage life sciences investments, biotech company formation and growth, management of global research organizations, and business development. Leandro is the Chief Operating Officer at Clade Therapeutics, where he translates the company's strategic decisions into business operations.

Mira Bernstein, PhD

Mira received her PhD in math from Harvard University, taught at Wellesley College for ten years, and then left academia to pursue her dual interests in data science and math enrichment education. She runs Canada/USA Mathcamp, an international summer program for mathematically talented high-school students, and helped found Proof School, a school for kids who love math in San Francisco. Her work at a summer math program for underserved middle-school students was featured in the New York Times. Mira’s experience with older students has convinced her of the importance of creating STEM pathways for underserved students, starting in elementary school. She lives in Cambridge and is excited for this opportunity to contribute to her city’s community.

Nataliya Yufa, PhD, M. Ed

Nataliya received her bachelor’s degrees from MIT in mathematics and physics, followed by a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago. It was in Chicago that she started teaching, working with people of all ages -- school children, undergraduates, and adults. She served three years as a teacher/director of STEM afterschool programs within the Chicago Public Schools, and one year in Houston. These experiences inspired Nataliya to become a full-time math educator, following work as a math education researcher. Since then, Nataliya has taught math at several Boston-area schools, including co-teaching the CSUS math club. She has an M.Ed. from Lesley University in Math Education.

Kim Bostic

The Board of Directors also includes Cambridge community leader Kim Bostic.

Advisory Board

Boaz Barak

Boaz Barak (he/him) is the Gordon McKay professor of Computer Science at Harvard University's John A. Paulson school of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research interests include all areas of theoretical computer science and in particular cryptography, computational complexity, and the foundations of machine learning. Previously, he was a principal researcher at Microsoft Research New England, and before that an associate professor (with tenure) at Princeton University's computer science department. Barak has won the ACM dissertation award, the Packard and Sloan fellowships, and was also selected for Foreign Policy magazine's list of 100 leading global thinkers for 2014. He was also chosen as a Simons investigator and a Fellow of the ACM. Barak is a member of the scientific advisory boards for Quanta Magazine and the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. He wrote with Sanjeev Arora the textbook “Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach.” He is also a board member of AddisCoder, a nonprofit that teaches algorithms and coding to high-school students in Ethiopia and Jamaica.

Jacob Barandes

Jacob Barandes (he/him) is a theoretical physicist and philosopher of science at Harvard University. He did his undergraduate work at Columbia University in physics and mathematics, and then completed his PhD in theoretical physics at Harvard. Dr. Barandes currently serves as Lecturer and Co-Director of Graduate Studies for the physics PhD program at Harvard, where he teaches courses on the fundamentals of theoretical physics, classical electromagnetism, general relativity, and the history and philosophy of quantum mechanics. He is also a Faculty Affiliate of the Harvard Black Hole Initiative and an Associated Faculty member with the Harvard Department of Philosophy. His research publications span the foundations of quantum theory, philosophy of science, and quantum field theory. Dr. Barandes also organizes an international workshop series on physics and philosophy.

Katie O'Neill

Katie O’Neill (she/her) is a Costume Designer and Community Outreach Consultant. After receiving her MFA from Yale School of Drama, she designed costumes for theaters around the country. In her travels she noticed that a strong theater-going habit is the cornerstone of communities with a healthy and vibrant civic dialog... and a lot of fun, so here in Cambridge she works on audience expansion for the large professional theaters. However, even artists have to wrestle with math as a gate-keeper. Katie does outreach for the Cambridge Math Circle so they can bring their “fun, beautiful math for all” to every student and family in Cambridge—and have more time to go to the theater!

Lauren K. Williams

Lauren K. Williams (she/her) is the Dwight Parker Robinson Professor of Mathematics in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Her research is in algebraic combinatorics; more specifically, she uses algebraic tools to study discrete structures in mathematics. Among her best-known work are combinatorial formulas for the stationary distribution of the asymmetric simple exclusion process (a model for traffic flow and translation in protein synthesis) and structural results for soliton solutions to the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation. Williams received her BA in mathematics from Harvard College, and after a year at the University of Cambridge completing Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, she obtained her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Subsequently, she was a National Science Foundation (NSF) postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley; a Benjamin Peirce Fellow at Harvard; and a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at Berkeley.