Dr. Judith E. Canner

Dr. Judith E. Canner received her B.S. in Mathematics from Shippensburg University, PA, in 2004 and her Ph.D. in Biomathematics and Zoology from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina working with Drs. Kevin Gross and Rob Dunn on The Population Ecology of Ant-dispersed Plants in Space and Time in 2010.  She joined the Mathematics and Statistics Department at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) as the first Assistant Professor of Statistics in 2010.  Data science and statistics are increasingly in-demand skillsets, and it is important to provide undergraduate level training and curriculum in computation skills to support students in the modern workforce.  Dr. Canner focused on the development of a new Statistics Program, followed by developing the Statistics Minor, the Statistics Concentration in the Mathematics Major and, currently, working with her colleagues to establish a new Statistics Major.  In addition to her focus on the growth of the Statistics Program, she is also the Principal Investigator on the National Institutes for Health funded Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Program at CSUMB, overseeing a special summer research program for CSUMB students from across disciplines at the University of California Santa Cruz Center for Big Data in Translational Genomics, curriculum develop and redesign with an emphasis on biomedical data science across programs in the College of Science, and supporting faculty development and training in data science.  In addition, she mentors students as both researchers and scholars as a part of the CSUMB Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center, to support their preparation for and successful entrance into graduate program in Statistics.  Dr. Canner also contributes to the national conversation on undergraduate statistics and data science education.  She is a past member of the Executive Committee for the Mathematical Association of America Special Interest Group for Statistics Education, and a current member of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Statistical Association Joint Committee on Undergraduate Statistics. 

In 2014, Dr. Canner became the first Quantitative Reasoning Assessment Coordinator for CSUMB.  Dr. Canner, in collaboration with faculty from across disciplines, developed a working definition and criteria, adapted from the AAC&U, to define QR broadly and beyond the context of mathematics.  As the coordinator, she lead the first assessment for QR across the disciplines in 2015 and then lead another assessment of QR across the disciplines integrated with assessment of critical thinking, information literacy, and writing in 2017.  In her capacity as the QR coordinator, she regularly consults with other faculty, programs, and departments on the inclusion of QR across the disciplines.  In addition, she collaborates with other faculty across disciplines to provide professional development in assignment design, transfer of learning, threshold concepts, development of outcomes, and curriculum development.  Quantitative Reasoning is a core competency and critical to student success in college, career, and citizenship.  Dr. Canner is planning another assessment, focused on GE Area B4 and the courses that naturally follow to continue scaffolding the teaching of QR across the curriculum and across disciplines. 

Dr. Canner is the central coordinator for all area B4 GE course redesign and support course design in response to EO 1110.  She oversees the broad planning and implementation of EO 1110 and 1100 as it pertains to all courses affected within the Mathematics and Statistics Department, as well as coordinating with other campus entities (Admissions, Advising, etc.) on how the new changes affect incoming and current students.  In her role as both the campus QR coordinator and the Mathematics and Statistics Department central coordinator for the implementation of EO 1110, she collaborates with the Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Center to provide ongoing professional development opportunities for the Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty, focused on Reading Apprenticeship (in collaboration with Nelson Graff; Rebecca Kersnar; and Dan Shapiro, with support from the American Council on Education) as well as training in formative assessment, teaching underprepared students, teaching English language learners, and Complex Instruction (with support from Lisa Jilk).  She continues to oversee the transition to the newly designed B4 GE courses and the corresponding Support Courses and will support the evaluation of the courses, support courses, and future student success.  Dr. Canner is hopeful that the new models for pedagogy and curricular support will help all students be successful in their first year mathematics/statistics course and beyond.