Dr. Kari Kokka

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Dr. Kari Kokka (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She studies social justice mathematics, mathematics teacher activism, and critical consciousness development of mathematics teachers. Her current research projects are funded by the National Science Foundation and Spencer Foundation. She is also co-host of the podcast Critical Math Drop. Before her position at UNLV, she was an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Pittsburgh (2017-2022), where she was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Research Award (2022), the Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2021), and the Iris Marion Award for Social Justice (2019). She began her career in education as a mathematics teacher and diving coach at Berkeley High School in 1999 before moving to New York City where she was a mathematics teacher activist and instructional coach at Vanguard High School, a Title I public school in New York City (2001-2011). As a high school math teacher she used Complex Instruction and Performance Based Assessment and did her student teaching at the "Railside School." She was also a participant in a dissertation study that resulted in a book called The Pedagogy of Teacher Activism: Portraits of Four Teachers for Justice. She is co-founder of the Creating Balance in an Unjust World Conference on STEAMM Education and Social Justice (co-founded in 2007), and she has been part of the Radical STEMM Educators of the Bay Area, the People’s Education Movement, and the New York Collective of Radical Educators. Dr. Kokka completed her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2017), principal certification with the NYC Leadership Academy (2011), and M.A. in Education (2001) and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1999) at Stanford University. She is a proud product of East San Jose, CA, K-12 public schools and a graduate of Independence High School.