Laura Anne Bilodeau Overdeck is an American math education entrepreneur and philanthropist. Overdeck is the founder and president of the

Bedtime Math Bedtime Math is a non-profit organization focused on mathematics education for young children, launched by Laura Overdeck in February 2012. History Bedtime Math was founded in February 2012, initially as a website. In March 2014, Bedtime Math ...

Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to bring recreational math to children through their parents.

Early life and education

Overdeck is the daughter of Emily and Gilbert R. Bilodeau of

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316, She attended

Westfield High School Westfield High School may refer to: * The Westfield School, Perry, Georgia * Westfield High School (Westfield, Indiana) * Westfield High School (Massachusetts), Westfield, Massachusetts * Westfield Technical Academy, Westfield, Massachusetts * West ...

, where she was valedictorian of her class. She was also selected for and participated in the New Jersey Governor's School in the Sciences. Overdeck went on to earn a bachelor's degree in astrophysical sciences from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. She also holds a master's degree in business administration from the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

, and an honorary doctorate in engineering from

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...

Career

After completing her education, Overdeck held positions at D.E. Shaw & Co. and at

Stanford Research Institute SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...

. Overdeck founded the nonprofit Bedtime Math in 2012, sending out playful nightly math posts for children to solve with their parents. The blog received early critical acclaim, and the following year she published ''Bedtime Math: A Fun Excuse to Stay Up Late'', her first of four books with Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. In 2021, she received Mathical Honors for ''Bedtime Math: This Time It’s Personal''. Subsequently, the Bedtime Math team created an app version of the offering;

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

researchers found that app usage increased children's math skills by an extra three months in one school year, publishing the results in ''Science''. Overdeck has published opinion pieces on children's math education in

TIME Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

, the

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

, and

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

. Overdeck serves as a trustee at Princeton University and is vice chair of the board of trustees at the

Liberty Science Center Liberty Science Center is an interactive science museum and learning center located in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. At its opening it was the largest such planetarium in the Western Hemisphere and the world's ...

in New Jersey. She also serves on the advisory boards of the Johns Hopkins

Center for Talented Youth The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is a gifted education program for school-age children founded in 1979 by psychologist Julian Stanley at Johns Hopkins University. It was established as a research study into how academically adv ...

and

Khan Academy Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created in 2008 by Sal Khan. Its goal is creating a set of online tools that help educate students. The organization produces short lessons in the form of videos. Its website also in ...

Awards

Overdeck was named Educator of the Year by the New Jersey R & D Council in 2017. In 2019 she was the commencement speaker at

, where she also received an honorary doctorate.

Philanthropy

In 2011, Overdeck and her husband established the Overdeck Family Foundation, an organization that funds educational research and

STEM education Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mush ...

. The foundation's overall goal is to enable all American children to unlock their potential by strengthening learning in and out of school. The Overdecks’ education philanthropy focuses on four key issue areas: “early impact,” “exceptional educators,” “innovative schools,” and “inspired minds.” They have made gifts to

Robin Hood Foundation The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York City. The organization also administers a relief fund for disasters in the New York City area. In 2010, a key supporter gave ...

for work by

MDRC MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization based in New York City; Washington, DC; and Oakland and Los Angeles, California. History In 1974, the Ford Foundation and six government agencies together create ...

to study the long-term effects of various early childhood programs. The Overdecks have also supported the

Harlem Children's Zone The Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) is a nonprofit organization for poverty-stricken children and families living in Harlem, providing free support in the form of parenting workshops, a preschool program, three charter schools, and child-oriented ...

with its early impact strategy and the

. Other grantees have included the NJ STEM Teaching Fellowship, and Governor's School for the Sciences at

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Overdeck is an alumna of Governor's School and was instrumental in saving the program through private donations in 2006. In October 2018, The Overdeck Education Innovation Fund gifted $1 million to be distributed over the next three years by the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

for research on education issues. This is the second gift from the Overdeck Family Foundation, the first of which was $1 million donated in 2016. That same month, the Overdeck Family Foundation pledged $3 million to Opportunity Insights, a policy and research institute based at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

that will publish data on the probability that children will escape poverty based on where they were raised.

Personal life

On October 12, 2002, Overdeck married

John Overdeck John Albert Overdeck (born 1969) is an American hedge fund manager and philanthropist. Overdeck is the co-founder and co-chairman of Two Sigma Investments, a New York City-based hedge fund that uses a variety of technological methods, including ...

, co-founder of

Two Sigma Investments Two Sigma Investments is a New York City-based hedge fund that uses a variety of technological methods, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and distributed computing, for its trading strategies. The firm is run by John Overdec ...

. They live in

Millburn, New Jersey Millburn is a suburban Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the township's population was 20,149, reflecting an increase of 384 (+1.9%) from t ...

and have three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Overdeck, Laura Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Princeton University alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni American women philanthropists SRI International people 21st-century American women writers Writers from New Jersey People from Millburn, New Jersey People from Westfield, New Jersey 21st-century American writers Mathematics writers Philanthropists from New Jersey American women bloggers American bloggers