Dr. Minerva Cordero-Epperson is a member of the mathematics department at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), where she also served as Associate Dean of the Honors College until 2008. Her research is on Finite Geometries and Combinatorics, which she has published extensively. Dr. Cordero currently serves as Chair of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Since 2006 Dr. Cordero has received funding from the MAA National Research Experience for Undergraduate’s Program (NREUP) to direct the research of underrepresented minorities’ students during a summer REU. Dr. Cordero was Governor for Minority Interests at the MAA until January 2011 and co-chairs the MAA Committee on Minority Participation in Mathematics. She also serves on the Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities at UTA, on the National Collegiate Honors Council Committee on Science and Mathematics and is Associate Editor of the Mathematics Monthly. She was a member of the Mentoring Committee for the National Association for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education during 2000-2002. She has received several teaching awards including the 2007 MAA Texas Section Award for Distinguished Teaching and the 2009 University of Texas Regents Award for Outstanding Teaching.