Talitha Washington (born 1974) is an American mathematician and academic who specializes in applied mathematics and STEM education policy.Black History Month 2018 Honoree: Talitha M. Washington
mathematicallygiftedandblack.com She was recognized by

Mathematically Gifted & Black Mathematically Gifted & Black (MGB) is a website that features the accomplishments of black scholars in mathematical sciences. In addition to highlighting the work and lives of established mathematicians in the African Diaspora, the platform aims ...

as a Black History Month 2018 Honoree.

Education and career

Washington was born in Frankfort, Indiana, and adopted at a young age by Ruthanne and Walter Wangerin. She was raised in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

, and attended

Benjamin Bosse High School Benjamin Bosse High School, referred to as Evansville Bosse High School by the IHSAA, is a public high school of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation in Evansville, Indiana, United States. Bosse is the third smallest high school by enrol ...

. After serving in Costa Rica with the

American Field Service AFS Intercultural Programs (or AFS, originally the American Field Service) is an international youth exchange organization. It consists of over 50 independent, not-for-profit organizations, each with its own network of volunteers, professional ...

, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from

Spelman College Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman rece ...

in 1996. She then attended the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

, earning a master's degree in 1998 and a Ph.D in 2001. Her doctoral thesis was ''Mathematical Model of Proteins Acting as On/Off Switches,'' under the supervision of Yung-Sze Choi. Washington served on the faculty of Duke University from 2001 to 2003, the

College of New Rochelle The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline O ...

from 2003 to 2005, the

University of Evansville The University of Evansville (UE) is a private university in Evansville, Indiana. It was founded in 1854 as Moores Hill College. The university operates a satellite center, Harlaxton College, in Grantham, England. UE offers more than 80 differ ...

from 2005 to 2011, and Howard University, starting in 2011, where she became associate professor of mathematics. After a few years on leave as a program director at the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

, in 2020 she became the inaugural director of the Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC) Data Science Initiative. Washington's research interests include nonstandard finite difference (NSFD) schemes for certain systems of differential equations, including

population model A population model is a type of mathematical model that is applied to the study of population dynamics. Rationale Models allow a better understanding of how complex interactions and processes work. Modeling of dynamic interactions in nature can ...

one-dimensional In physics and mathematics, a sequence of ''n'' numbers can specify a location in ''n''-dimensional space. When , the set of all such locations is called a one-dimensional space. An example of a one-dimensional space is the number line, where the ...

systems, and the Black–Scholes equation.

Education policy and awards

Washington is active in education policy, especially best practices on achieving racial and ethnic diversity in STEM.Mathematics Professor Talitha Washington Receives Prestigious NSF DUE Appointment
Howard University, College of Arts and Sciences At the NSF, she has served as co-Lead of the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program and is a graduate of the STEM diversity organization

SACNAS The 'Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)'' is a society that aims to further the success of Chicano/Hispanic and Native American students in obtaining advanced degrees, careers, leadership positi ...

.Talitha Washington's homepage
/ref> She serves on 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, ...

and served on the Executive Committee of the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

.
Hidden no more: Dr. Talitha Washington
' by Lango Deen, US Black Engineer Information Technology Magazine, January 9, 2018 Washington helped to champion the once-forgotten Evansville mathematician

Elbert Frank Cox Elbert Frank Cox (5 December 1895 – 28 November 1969) was an American mathematician. He was the first Black person in history to receive a PhD in mathematics, which he earned at Cornell University in 1925. Early life Cox was born in Ev ...

(1895–1969), from her hometown of Evansville, leading to the November 2006 unveiling of a plaque honoring the longtime Howard professor as the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

scholar to earn a doctorate in mathematics. She received the 2019 Black Engineer of the Year Awards STEM Innovator Award. Talitha Washington was named a

Fellow 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, ...

, Class of 2021. Her citation read "For contributions to broadening the participation of underrepresented groups, and service to the mathematical profession". Washington was also named a Fellow of the

, Class of 2021, "for her dedication to raise awareness of African American women in STEM; for her lifelong promotion of Historically Black Colleges and Universities; and for her unwavering dedication to the National Association of Mathematicians." She is currently President Elect of the AWM.

Selected publications

; Applied mathematics * R. E. Mickens and T. M. Washington. "A Note on Exact Finite Difference Schemes for the Differential Equations Satisfied by the Jacobi Cosine and Sine Functions" ''Journal of Difference Equations and Applications'', Vol. 19, Iss. 2 (2013), pp. 1042–1047. * T. M. Washington. NSFD "Representations for Polynomial Terms Appearing in the Potential Functions of 1-Dimensional Conservative Systems" ''Computers & Mathematics with Applications'', Vol. 66, Iss. 11 (2013), pp. 2251–2258. * R. E. Mickens and T. M. Washington. NSFD "Discretizations of Interacting Population Models Satisfying Conservation Laws" ''Computers & Mathematics with Applications'', Vol. 66, Iss. 11 (2013), pp. 2307–2316. * E. H. Goins and T. M. Washington. "On the Generalized Climbing Stairs Problem" ''Ars Combinatoria'', Vol. 117 (2014), pp. 183–190. * R. E. Mickens, J. Munyakazi and T. M. Washington. "A Note on the Exact Discretization for a Cauchy-Euler ODE: Application to the Black-Scholes Equation" ''Journal of Difference Equations and Applications'', Vol. 21, Iss. 7 (2015), pp. 547–552. * O. Adekanye and T. Washington. "Numerical Comparison of Nonstandard Schemes for the Airy Equation" ''International Journal of Applied Mathematical Research'', Vol. 6, Iss. 4 (2017), pp. 141–146. * O. Adekanye and T. Washington. "Nonstandard Finite Difference Scheme for a Tacoma Narrows Bridge Model" ''Applied Mathematical Modelling'', Accepted May 21, 2018. ;STEM education policy * T. M. Washington. "Evansville Honors the First Black Ph.D. in Mathematics and His Family" ''The Notices of the American Mathematical Society'', Vol. 55, Iss. 5 (2008), pp. 588–589. * M. J. Wolyniak, C. J. Alvarez, V. Chandrasekaran, T. M. Grana, A. Holgado, C. J. Jones, R. W. Morris, A. L. Pereira, J. Stamm, T. M. Washington, and Y. Yang. "Building Better Scientists Through Cross-disciplinary Collaboration in Synthetic Biology: A Meeting Report from the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching Workshop 2010" ''CBE-Life Sciences Education'', Vol. 9, No. 4 (2010), pp. 399–404. * R. De Veaux, M. Agarwal, M. Averett, B. Baumer, A. Bray, T. Bressoud, L. Bryant, L. Cheng, A. Francis, R. Gould, A. Y. Kim, M. Kretchmar, Q. Lu, A. Moskol, D. Nolan, R. Pelayo, S. Raleigh, R. J. Sethi, M. Sondjaja, N. Tiruviluamala, P. Uhlig, T. Washington, C. Wesley, D. White, P. Ye. "Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Data Science" ''Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application'', Vol. 4 (2017), pp. 2.1-2.16. * V. R. Morris and T. Washington. "The Role of Professional Societies in STEM Diversity" ''Journal of the National Technical Association'', Vol. 87, Iss. 1 (2017), pp. 22–31. * T. Washington. "Behind Every Successful Woman, There are a Few Good Men" ''The Notices of the AMS'', Vol. 65, Iss. 02 (2018), pp. 132–134.

References

External links

*
Talitha Washington homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, Talitha People from Frankfort, Indiana 1974 births Living people 21st-century women mathematicians African-American mathematicians Spelman College alumni University of Connecticut alumni Duke University faculty College of New Rochelle faculty University of Evansville faculty Howard University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics