I am originally from Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. (home to Amerindian populations including the
Warao and
Kalinago) and come from a family of educators. After my undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Botany from the
University of the West Indies, where I did early research on extremophilic organisms in the La Brea Asphalt Lake supervised by Dr. Lois Sealy, I taught Mathematics, Biology and Writing at Presentation College San Fernando. In 2004 I came to Canada on a Commonwealth Scholarship and completed a thesis based M.Ed at
Queens University (Kingston, ON, traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee Peoples) on
Dialogical Relations in a Mathematics Classroom supervised by Dr. Geoffrey Roulet and Dr. William Higginson. I returned to Trinidad and worked alongside Dr. Maria Byron at the UWI, St. Augustine School of Education in pre and in-service mathematics teacher education. In 2008 I returned to Canada where I completed doctoral work -
Rehearsing a Maroon Mythopoetics in Mathematics Education - in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy where I was an inaugural recipient of a
SSHRC Vanier Graduate Scholarship at
UBC (Vancouver, unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples,[11] including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations) co-supervised by Dr. Brent Davis and Dr. Susan Gerofsky. I designed graduate courses and co-taught alongside Dr. Davis within the Mathematics-4-Teaching (M4T) cohorts in Vancouver and Calgary. In 2013 I was a Post-doctoral Researcher at the
Werklund School of Education (University of Calgary, traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikuni, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Stoney Nakoda First Nations, including Chiniki, Bearpaw, and Wesley First Nations) involved in the Canadian Oil Sands Early Mathematics Initiative (COSEMI) in partnership with
JUMPMath and a Calgary School Board working on-site with teachers to
understand and implement changes to their mathematics teaching practice and awareness. In 2014 I drove the 3000+km from Calgary to St. Catharines, ON with two (literal) guinea pig companions to take up an Instructional Limited Term Appointment (ILTA) at Brock University (St. Catharines, traditional territory of Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee Peoples) in the Department of Teacher Education working alongside Dr. Joyce Mgombelo. Together with Dr. Joanne Graham I developed the two courses in the new two year Consecutive B.Ed Elementary program and saw their first complete run through as well as implemented a math refresher for pre-service elementary teacher candidates in partnership with Vretta. In 2017 I began this tenure-track position here at the University of Alberta, Edmonton (Treaty 6 territory and a traditional meeting ground and home for many Indigenous Peoples, including Cree, Saulteaux, Niisitapi (Blackfoot), Métis, and Nakota Sioux).I am currently a member of CMASTE (The Center for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education).
Personal Interests: I am an amateur Squash player, lover of popular mythologies (think Comics, Science Fiction & Fantasy), dad, and husband.