Ph.D. MIT Mathematics, 1992
B.S. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1984, Mathematics
B.S. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1984, Computer Science

For twenty-five years, Debra K. Borkovitz was a faculty member at Wheelock College, a small college in Boston whose mission was to improve the lives of children and families. At Wheelock she led a math program that featured excellent, inclusive, inquiry based teaching and helped turn math phobic students into math majors.  When Wheelock merged with Boston University last spring, she joined the Mathematics and Statistics Department at BU.  

Debra’s teaching is informed by her love of math, her love of students, and her sensitivity to issues of power.  She was an out lesbian at MIT during the 1980’s (a classmate of Gioia De Cari’s), and in 1989 she was one of the founders of The Network/La Red, one of the first organizations in the country addressing domestic violence in queer relationships.    

In recent years she has become interested in mathematical art, and her Temari Permutation Ball is on the cover of this year’s calendar from the American Mathematical Society. At Wheelock she designed and taught a course Exploring Math with Yarn and Thread and she is working with a colleague to design a similar course at BU.  Her website is DebraBorkovitz.com.