Our Team

Robert Case

Founder

Born and raised in Boston, Robert Case attended public school from kindergarten until graduation. Dr. Case spent much of his youth playing baseball and hockey on the playgrounds and frozen ponds in and around Boston—but remembers how fortunate he was to have extraordinary, inspiring teachers during that time, especially his math teacher, Arthur Leary, at Hyde Park High School. Encouragement and support from his teachers led to a PhD from the Belfer Graduate School of Science at Yeshiva University in New York City.

While teaching math courses at Northeastern, Dr. Case connected with countless like-minded individuals who cared deeply about providing opportunities for the next generation of students. Joining forces with Dr. Donald King and a handful of others, Dr. Case reached out to best practice groups across the country, including teachers, faculty, and university students, to begin building an alliance to bring rigorous math programs to high schoolers—which eventually led to Bridge to Calculus.

Dr. Case has seen a drastic change in Boston since his upbringing. Today, he sees the pipeline carrying first-generation college students from high school to universities, like Northeastern, shifting to provide more access to Black, Latinx, and Asian-American populations. Realizing that the enormous potential of this population would otherwise be untapped—which he saw as a grievous blow to both racial justice and the vitality of society—Dr. Case was eager to create a group at Northeastern that was looking to bring a college pathway to all.

Donald King

Co-founder

Donald King was a faculty member in the math department of Northeastern University for almost 40 years. He retired at the end of 2018. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1950s and early 1960s, at which time he developed a deep passion for mathematics and physics. With the help of very loving and supportive parents (without high school diplomas), along with a string of encouraging teachers, he excelled in the public schools — especially Stuyvesant High School — and graduated from Harvard in 1968. After a period of radical political activism, he refocused on mathematics and graduated from M.I.T. with a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1979.

Throughout his career, a major focus of Don’s efforts has been on increasing the participation and performance of underrepresented minorities in the mathematical sciences. This is often called the “pipeline problem”. One aspect of this issue is securing financial aid for such students. From 2006 to 2012, Don provided financial support for undergrad STEM majors at Northeastern through the Mathematics and Science Talent Scholarship program

During his retirement, Don continues to work on several aspects and several levels of the “pipeline problem”: (1) diversifying the AP Calculus community through Bridge to Calculus; (2) mentoring students through the National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences; and (3) documenting the contributions of Mathematicians of the African Diaspora to the mathematical sciences.

Don is providing the same kind support that he received from faculty such as Bob Case and Tom Sherman, when he was a master’s student at Northeastern in the early 1970’s.

Egon Schulte, PhD

Chair, Department of Mathematics, Northeastern University

Dr. Egon Schulte is a Professor in Mathematics and the Chair of the Mathematics Department at Northeastern. His main areas of expertise include Discrete and Combinatorial Geometry, Combinatorics, and Group Theory, and his recent teaching activities have focused on graduation education and the supervision of PhD students.

Egon witnessed Bridge to Calculus grow from a small outreach program for Boston area high-school students, launched by his former colleague, Bob Case, about 25 years ago, to a vibrant program of modest size based on an alliance between Northeastern University’s Mathematics Department and the Boston Public Schools.

The program is as much about college access for underserved high-school students as it is about Calculus and mathematics! Egon has been part of the team reinvigorating Bridge to Calculus, including implementing the Math Question Center, a new program component added in 2020 to support students throughout the academic year.

Bindu Veetel

Coordinator, Bridge to Calculus

Dr. Bindu Veetel teaches Mathematics at Northeastern University and has recently been appointed as Interim Director of the Bridge to Calculus (BtC) program. She has been associated with Northeastern from 2007, initially as a student and later as instructor. She received her PhD from Northeastern in 2014 in the area of partial differential equations. Within Northeastern’s Mathematics department, Bindu has been teaching various levels of courses in Calculus and Statistics and coordinating one of the largest math courses in the department.

Additionally, she teaches online courses for Elementary School teachers at Grand Canyon University. In the past, she has also taught at Wentworth Institute of Technology (Boston) and Mount Carmel College (Bangalore, India).

Her research is in the area of Partial Differential Equations, with a focus on Inverse Problems which has applications in areas like cancer research. She inspires students to focus on the beauty and compelling influence that Mathematics has in the rapidly evolving world.