Bio: Dr. Shanise Walker is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Clark Atlanta University. Prior to her position at CAU, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC). She earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Iowa State University and her B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Georgia. Dr. Walker’s research interests lie in extremal combinatorics, graph theory, and data science. To date, she has published several peer-reviewed manuscripts and supervised various undergraduate research projects. In 2023, Dr. Walker co-edited a book entitled Aspiring and Inspiring: Tenure and Leadership in Academic Mathematics.

In service, Dr. Walker remains active to the mathematical profession, where much of her work is focused on advancing mathematics and supporting early-career mathematicians. To name a few, she co-organized the 2018-2023 Joint Mathematics Meetings Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) special sessions, which highlighted the research work of women mathematicians and mentored early-career mathematicians. During this time, Dr. Walker served as a co-Principal Investigator and Principal Investigator for two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants that supported the EDGE sessions.  In 2023, she served as the lead local organizer for the 33rd National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) Undergraduate MATHFest, which was hosted at Clark Atlanta University. In 2023, Dr. Walker was also awarded an NSF research grant under Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program. The grant supports her research and establishing a combinatorics research program to provide valuable research mentorship opportunities for undergraduate students. She also served on the Association of Women in Mathematics Executive Committee as a member-at-large from 2022-2026 and chaired the Policy and Advocacy committee during her last two years. In 2025, Dr. Walker began her role as the Vice President of NAM, where she oversees the organization’s signature events. 

Topics Include:

Connecting the Mathematics: One Discipline, Many Connections
Undergraduate mathematics majors often take a series of standard courses as they work towards their degree programs. However, many of them do not connect the material from one course to another. Often, students view the courses as disjoint and standalone. In this talk, I discuss my experience in exploring and teaching connections between calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, and abstract algebra. We also examine the importance of making connections between the courses and how students can use the learned concepts as building blocks to future mathematics courses. 

The Stumbling Blocks of Mentoring
As educators, we take on the role of mentoring our students through course advancement, research, and their journeys beyond graduation. In mentoring, we are faced with assisting each student to become their best persons, but we do not always recognize the challenges they are facing or may face in accomplishing their goals. Some challenges are silent as students do not always share and other challenges are more visible. While the goals may be the same for each student, the path to success may look different. In this talk, I will discuss how my mentorship failures and teachable moments enhanced my overall mentorship of each student. In addition, I will share how my students achieved more success when I carefully crafted plans for them, both inside and outside of the classroom.