Hilary Risser - Department of Mathematical Sciences

Hilary RisserProfessor and Department Head
Museum 112
Phone: 406-496-4581
Email Hilary Smith Risser
https://sites.google.com/site/hsrisser/

Biography

Dr. Smith Risser is a tenured Professor in the department of Mathematical Sciences. Dr. Smith Risser received her Ph.D. in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Smith Risser taught at Plano West Senior High School and Texas Woman's University before coming to Montana Tech in 2008. While at Montana Tech, she has served as the President of the Montana Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Dr. Smith Risser has been honored for her exceptional teaching and service to the university and the state with three Rose and Anna Busch Awards, three merit awards, and the Dean Preble Memorial Award.

Research Interests

Dr. Smith Risser’s research focuses on the use of technology in the teaching of mathematics and the use of technology in professional development for teachers. She has published articles on the use of technology in the teaching of mathematics and on online professional communities of teachers. She has also published several book chapters on mentoring of higher education faculty and teaching online mathematics courses. Dr. Smith Risser has collaborated with more than twenty different faculty members from across the world on research projects in education. Dr. Smith Risser has assisted and supervised numerous undergraduate/graduate research projects on a variety of topics related to math and science education. Dr. Smith Risser is also the PI on an NSF S-STEM award.

Non-Research Academic Interests

Dr. Smith Risser is deeply interested in encouraging students of all ages to appreciate the beauty of mathematics. She organizes and participates in outreach activities concerning mathematics for children of all ages. These activities are designed to help students see beyond the mathematics they are taught in school. Some of the topics she has presented on are, mathematical modeling of disease transmission, the mathematics of code breaking, the mathematics of social networks, and the mathematics in music.

Career in Brief

  • 2016-Present: Professor, Montana Tech
  • 2014-Present: Head of Mathematical Sciences Department Montana Tech
  • 2011-2016: Associate Professor, Montana Tech
  • 2008-2011: Assistant Professor, Montana Tech
  • 2006-2008: Assistant Professor, Texas Woman’s University
  • 2002-2006: Mathematics Teacher, Plano Independent School District

Selected Publications

Atkinson, D. & Smith Risser, H. (2022). Exploring students’ responses to reading assignments in first-year mathematics courses Forthcoming in The Journal of College Reading and Learning

Smith Risser, H., Bottoms, S., & Clark, C. (2019). “Nobody else organized”: teachers solving problems of practice in the Twitterblogosphere. Educational Media International, 56(4), 269-284.

Smith Risser, H. & Waddell Jr., G. (2018) Beyond the backchannel: Tweeting patterns after two educational conferences. Educational Media International, 55(3), 199-212.

Smith Risser, H. & Bottoms, S. (2018). Becoming the MTBoS: Predicting sense of belonging for a grassroots blogging network. International Journal of Web Based Communities, 14(1), 21-37.

Smith Risser, H. & Bottoms, S. (2015) Who stays, who goes? Predicting continuance for bloggers, Journal of Social Media Studies, 1(2), 135-142.

Pegg, J., Adams, A., Smith Risser, H., Bottoms, S., Kern, A., & Wu, K. (2014) Finding FRiENDs: Creating a Community of Support for Early Career Academics. Brock Education Journal , 24(1), 47-54.

Smith Risser, H. & Bottoms, S. (2014) Newbies" and "Celebrities": Detecting Social Roles in an Online Network of Teachers via Participation Patterns, International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 9(4), 433-450.

Smith Risser, H. (2013) Virtual Induction: A Novice Teacher’s Use of Twitter to Form a Mentoring Network. Teaching and Teacher Education, 35, 25-33.

Bottoms, S., Pegg, J., Adams, A., Wu, K., Smith Risser, H., & Kern, A.(2013). Mentoring from the outside: The role of a peer mentoring community in the development of early career education faculty. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 21(2).

Battle, L., Mitra, A., & Smith Risser, H. (2020) Teaching cross listed mathematics courses online. In J. P. Howard & J. F. Beyers (Eds.) Teaching and Learning Mathematics Online (pp. 2-14). CRC Press.

Bottoms, S., Pegg, J., Adams, A., Smith Risser, H., & Wu, K. (2020) Mentoring within communities of practice. In B.J. Irby, etl. al. (Eds.), International Handbook of Mentoring: Paradigms, Practices, Programs, and Possibilities (pp. 141-166). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons Inc.

Adams, A., Pegg, J., Bottoms, S., Smith Risser, H., Wu, K., & Kern, A. (2016). Storying our academic career transitions within a peer mentoring community. In Global co-mentoring networks in higher education: Politics, policies, and practices.

Personal Interests

In her spare time, Dr. Smith Risser is an avid knitter and quilter. She also enjoys photography, gardening, and cooking. Among her most important personal accomplishments is being the mother of two amazing daughters.