Our Boards

BEAM National Board of Directors

Edray Herber Goins is Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Pomona College. He has worked as a researcher at both Harvard and the National Security Agency, and has taught at both Caltech and Purdue. Professor Goins has published over 25 journal articles in areas such as applied mathematics, graph theory, number theory, and representation theory, and on topics such as Diophantine equations, elliptic curves, and African Americans in mathematics. He has given nearly 300 invited addresses on his research, acted as a referee for nearly 20 different journals in mathematics, served on dozens of panels for the National Science Foundation (NSF), and been awarded more than $1,370,000 in external funding. Goins currently maintains the website “Mathematicians of the African Diaspora (MAD Pages)”, and runs a federally-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) titled Pomona Research in Mathematics Experience (PRiME).

Edray Herber Goins

Board Chair

Nanayaa Dadson is a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase & Co, where she has worked since 1997. She was born and raised in Ghana, attended high school in the United Kingdom and moved to the United States to attend college. She holds a PhD, M.S. and B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University.

Nanayaa Dadson

Board Treasurer

Chair of Financial Planning Committee

Richard Rusczyk founded the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) in 2003 to create interactive educational opportunities for avid math students, and expanded this work by founding the nonprofit Art of Problem Solving Initiative in 2004. AoPS now reaches hundreds of thousands of high-potential math students every year through its learning centers, online schools, books, websites, and online learning systems. Richard authored or co-authored 7 math textbooks, created over 1400 videos for K-12 math students, and was a past Director of the USA Mathematical Talent Search.

Richard Rusczyk

Former Board Chair

Nkenge Ho-Shing is an experienced human resources and internal communications leader with nearly 20 years in finance. She is currently the Head of Organizational Development at Citadel Securities. Prior to CitSec, Nikki held roles at Two Sigma Investments and Credit Suisse. In addition to BEAM, Nikki serves on the board of Legacy College Prep Charter School in the South Bronx. She has also served on Bryn Mawr College’s President’s Advisory Council. Nikki is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and CUNY's Hunter College. She resides in Manhattan with her dog, Stanley, and is a (very) amateur flutist.

Nikki Ho-Shing

New York Advisory Board Chair

Sandor Lehoczky works for Jane Street Capital, a financial firm in New York City. He co-authored the Art of Problem Solving with Richard Rusczyk and graduated from Princeton in 1994.

Sandor Lehoczky

Ken Baron is currently a Managing Director at Two Sigma Investments, where he has worked since 2008. Ken has been in the field of finance and investment management for over 30 years. He was born and raised in New York City attending NYC public schools, including Stuyvesant High School. Ken completed an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Statistics from Stanford University. He is the co-author of Parimutuel Applications in Finance, a mathematical finance book. In addition to being a BEAM board member, Ken has been a volunteer with BEAM for several years, teaching classes for BEAM students on "Money and Investing" and “Games and Strategies.”

Ken Baron

Vice Board Chair

Jeff Hoffman is a data-driven strategist who has held various leadership positions at Google, including Head of Search Strategy & Insights and Head of Google Workspace Customer & Growth Insights. In these roles, he has led teams of analysts in providing strategic guidance to senior executives and driving growth initiatives. Prior to joining Google, Jeff held marketing and strategy roles at Amazon and Target. He holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Washington University in St. Louis. Jeff was inspired to pursue higher learning in mathematics at a young age and has worked as a math tutor since he was in middle school.

Jeff Hoffman

Chair of Audit and External Relations Committees

Kiran Kedlaya is the Stefan E. Warschawski Professor of Mathematics at the University of California San Diego. He has served as a member of the USA International Mathematics Olympiad team, a deputy leader of the USA IMO team, a member of the IMO 2001 executive committee, a member of the USA Mathematical Olympiad committee, and a member of the Council of the American Mathematical Society. He has also co-authored two books on the Putnam competition.

Kiran Kedlaya

Perrin Wheeler is Chief Operating Officer at Scale, a strategic advisory firm providing communications counsel to leading executives. She brings 17 years of communications experience, working with leading institutions and their leaders to navigate change, crisis and complex issues. Perrin joined Scale from Two Sigma, where she served most recently as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. In that role, she oversaw a team of 13 people responsible for Two Sigma's global brand, digital content and design, media relations, thought leadership content, and internal communications. Prior to Two Sigma, Perrin was an Assistant Vice President at Credit Suisse where she was responsible for communications coverage for the private banking business in the Americas and the Asset Management business globally. Perrin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Legal Studies from Bowdoin College.

Perrin Wheeler

Susan Schwartz Wildstrom is newly retired after fifty years of teaching mathematics, including a proof-based precalculus course and a multivariable calculus course, in public high schools. Most recently, Susan taught at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD. Susan is a member of both the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.

Susan Schwartz Wildstrom

Darryl Hill is a partner at HCM Strategists. His work focuses on improving outcomes for underserved students and expanding access to opportunities in postsecondary pathways. Prior to this role, Darryl was a senior program officer for measurement, learning and evaluation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has also held roles in several school districts around the country, including as Assistant Superintendent of School Accountability and Governance for the Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, GA. He has a Ed.D. in Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice from Harvard University. Before attending Harvard, Darryl built an outstanding mathematics team at Rickards High School in Florida, earning Mu Alpha Theta's most dedicated sponsor award.

Darryl Hill

Board Secretary

Chair of Programs and Impact Committee

Kristin Kearns-Jordan has led education organizations in New York City since 1991 and has recently added a focus in Danbury, CT. She has been the CEO or executive director of three education nonprofits, a middle and high school, and two family foundations. The throughline of her work has been the advancement of education equity and the alignment of nonprofit commitments to system level reform and more just education policy. Kristin recently established a foundation with her husband Kevin Jordan, the Jordan Family Foundation, that makes education grants in NYC and Danbury, CT and operates the Danbury Scholarship Fund for Student Leaders. Kristin also runs an executive coaching practice for nonprofit executives, KKJ Impact Coaching, and serves on the boards of several nonprofits and schools.

Kristin Kearns-Jordan

Chair of Governance Committee

Lennin Antunish is an indigenous first-generation college graduate with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Franklin & Marshall College, where he was a POSSE Scholar. Currently, he is a Program Manager at Coded By Kids, where he designs and implements programs that empower underrepresented students to build startups from ideation to MVP. At Coded By Kids, Lennin leverages his background growing up in a low-income, mixed-status household to connect with students and design impactful programming. One of his key achievements is the creation of the Tech & Innovation Internship, a 10-week program that equips Philadelphia students with real-world experience in startup creation & entrepreneurship. As an alum of the BEAM program and former math counselor, Lennin brings a deep personal connection to BEAM's mission.

Lennin Antunish

Prashant Lal is a partner at Hudson River Trading, a quantitative trading firm headquartered in New York City. Prior to joining HRT, Prashant was a partner at Tower Research Capital. Since joining HRT in 2010, he’s focused on the firm’s growth into new global markets and asset classes. An MIT graduate in economics, he lives in New York with his wife, Saira, and their two daughters. He is also the creator and owner of a winery in New Jersey, Stokelan Winery, which grows and showcases wines from the region.

Prashant Lal

Dr. Talithia Williams is a trailblazer and a passionate advocate for making science, technology, engineering and mathematics relevant and empowering for all. As an award-winning college professor, she brings statistics to life by demystifying complex mathematical concepts, making them accessible and exciting for students, parents, and educators. Dr. Williams develops statistical models that emphasize the spatial and temporal structure of data, and has partnered with the World Health Organization in developing a cataract model used to predict the cataract surgical rate for countries in Africa. Talithia has made it her life's work to get students, parents, educators, and community members more excited about the possibilities inherent in a STEM education.

Talithia Williams

BEAM New York Advisory Board

Adriana is currently a software engineer at Google. She grew up in Mexico and moved to the US to pursue a Computer Science degree. In addition to working as an engineer, she is passionate about technology in education, mathematics, basketball and contributing to projects which aim to equalize access to STEM opportunities.

Adriana Castilla Hernandez

Giselle George is originally from the Nature Island of the Caribbean, Dominica. She was the 8th grade Math teacher, at East Side Community School, from 2005 to 2021. She graduated from Brooklyn College with a BS in Mathematics and from NYU with an MA in Mathematics Education. She was one of the original members of Math for America and learned a lot about herself as an educator. Ironically, she taught at BEAM for some summers, challenging students to discover number patterns like the Fibonacci sequence, and Pascal's triangle to name a few. During the Covid pandemic, she pursued an MA Degree in School Building Leadership and became the 8th/9th/Math Assistant Principal at East Side. She loves mathematics and helps students either fall in love with it or gain a deeper appreciation for it.

Giselle George

Jonathan Niles-Weed is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Data Science at New York University, and holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and undergraduate degrees in Mathematics & Chinese from Princeton University. He is the recipient of a Sloan Fellowship in Mathematics, an NSF CAREER award, and an Early Career Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In addition to being a passionate teacher and mathematics researcher, Jonathan is an avid amateur linguist and musical theater enthusiast.

Jonathan Niles-Weed

Malachi Myers is an Associate at Morgan Stanley. He graduated from Binghamton University with a bachelor's in Actuarial Science and Economics. He was born and raised in New York City and attended BEAM in 2013. After BEAM he attended Brooklyn Technical High School, one of NYC's specialized high schools, and pursued advanced mathematics for the following decade which helped get him where he is today.

Malachi Myers

BEAM Alum

William Zheng grew up on Long Island and is a product of math circles and science research. As a result, he is excited about STEM education. In high school, he came into NYC on weekends to explain math at the National Museum of Mathematics. He graduated with a BS in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University. As president of Columbia's Chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, he ran a year-long coding bootcamp to teach high school students topics in coding and numerical methods. In addition, he ran a campus data science newsletter and podcast. He is currently working at Jane Street Capital and training for his 3rd NYC marathon.

William Zheng

Alex Williams is Assistant Professor of Neural Science at New York University and a Project Leader at the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Neuroscience. His work develops statistical models and open-source computational tools to extract insights about the brain from experimental data. This research has been published in a variety of journals and conference proceedings in topic areas spanning neuroscience, machine learning, and statistics. His lab is particularly interested in characterizing flexibility and variability in neural circuits—e.g., how do the dynamics of large neural ensembles change over the course of learning a new skill, during periods of high attention or task engagement, or during development and aging. His group leverages mathematical theory of high-dimensional probability and statistics to make these advances.

Alex Williams

Gustavo Palazzi is a Senior Portfolio Manager at VR Capital Group, where he has been since September 2002. Based in New York, Mr. Palazzi leads VR’s investment activities across Latin America, with a particular focus on Argentina. A native of Buenos Aires, Mr. Palazzi previously worked in investment planning at Bridas, an Argentine oil and gas company (now PanAmerican Energy), as an energy equity analyst at Banco Republica, and in the investment planning and commercial areas of Alto Parana, a major forest products company in Argentina (now Arauco Argentina). Mr. Palazzi graduated from Buenos Aires Institute of Technology, where he earned a B.Sc. in industrial engineering in 1994 and an M.Sc. in oil and gas economics in 1996. He also earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002.

Gustavo Palazzi

Liliana Kleyman is the US Finance Manager at XTX Markets, a leading algorithmic trading firm. Her work focuses on producing financial statements, maintaining books and records, regulatory reporting, and automation. Her previous work experience was in banking, where she worked in various roles including stress testing, regulatory capital production, financial planning and analysis, and capital monitoring. She graduated with her BBA in Finance and Investments with a minor in Economics from Baruch College. In 2019 she earned her CFA Charterholder.

Liliana Kleyman

Michael Ma grew up in Plano, Texas and has always had a passion for math. He spent many hours doing math in middle and high school and met many of his lifelong friends at competitions and summer camps. After completing a B.S. in Mathematics at MIT, he went and worked at Jane Street for a couple years as a Quantitative Trader before ultimately deciding his passions lay in connecting with people and mentoring students. After doing some teaching and ops work at summer camps, he entered his current role as Math and Recruiting Program Ambassador at Hudson River Trading to help leverage his background and connections in the finance sphere towards helping inspire students in math and cs. He loves developing fun events like puzzle hunts and playing board games in his free time, whether it be for his friends or upcoming students.

Michael Ma

Chris Ortega, a native New Yorker from the vibrant borough of the Bronx, has always been driven by a desire to make a meaningful impact. He earned his B.A. in Neuroscience from Wesleyan University, but after a year in healthcare, he realized he wanted his work to reach further—especially within his own community. His journey began years earlier as a Prep for Prep student, where he first experienced the power of access and opportunity. That formative experience planted the seed for his commitment to opening doors for others, eventually leading him to volunteer with BEAM, where he saw firsthand how resources and mentorship could transform lives. Inspired, he joined Jopwell, an organization dedicated to connecting underrepresented communities with careers in industries that historically lacked diversity. Since then, Chris has made it his mission to ensure that access isn’t a privilege but a right. Beyond work, he channels his curiosity, analytical mindset, and ability to connect with others into everything he does, always looking for ways to drive impact and foster meaningful relationships.

Chris Ortega

John Mrkonic is a Managing Director at BDT&MSD Partners, a merchant bank with an advisory and investment platform built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and long-term, strategic investors. He majored in math at Stanford and is passionate about math education and BEAM’s mission.

John Mrkonic

Born and raised in Bulgaria, Lilly moved to the United States to attend Columbia Business School. After a decade of working in investment banking and portfolio management, she focused on supporting her two children in their learning journey while volunteering for multiple non-profit math organizations. She is excited to extend the impact of these efforts to BEAM students and join a community dedicated to helping curious young minds through the joys and struggles of growth.

Lilly Svoronos

Born in Yemen but raised in NYC, Mona is a Barnard College alumna who majored in psychology. She is a financial analyst and is currently the Financial Operations Manager at CNI (Columbia Nano Initiative) at Columbia University. She wears multiple hats for her role, managing accounts Payable, Receivable, and reimbursement, as well as a team of 20-25 work study students. She had been with CNI for 6 years. Her work with the administrative team ensures that the Cleanroom and PIs’ labs run smoothly. In addition to being a BEAM New York advisory board member, Mona is a BEAM alumna, and a former BEAM junior counselor and counselor.

Mona Naser

BEAM Alum

BEAM Los Angeles Advisory Board

Mason Smith is an experienced and skilled software engineer now working in financial services. For 10 years, he has worked at TGS Management Company, where he leads software engineering for building quantitative trading systems and infrastructure to support quantitative research. TGS, based in Irvine, California, builds quantitative trading systems to solve challenging problems and develop technology solutions. Prior to joining TGS, Mason received an AT&T Labs fellowship and an AFCS Foundation Scholarship to attend the University of California, Berkeley to pursue a PhD in computer science. He currently serves as a trustee for the California Institute of Technology. He graduated from Caltech with honors in 2009, earning a BS degree in mathematics and computer science.

Mason Smith

Los Angeles Advisory Board Chair

Christine Woodin is a Partner at Hueston Hennigan, where she focuses on intellectual property and complex commercial litigation. She has represented clients across a wide range of industries, managing patent and licensing disputes, defending major product lines, and handling antitrust and contract matters.

Before joining Hueston Hennigan, Christine was a principal at McKool Smith and began her legal career at Irell & Manella LLP. She earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as a comment editor for the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and holds a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where she conducted research in computational applied mathematics.

Christine Woodin

Hailing from the Lucky Country (Australia), Rufus spent two years in Germany as a child, earned a Masters at Oxford, and earned a PhD in Number Theory at Harvard, all experiences that gave him an inkling of what it is like to be an outsider. Recognizing his charmed and opportunity-laden life, he has a passion for opening pathways to others, be that by spearheading a learn-to-swim program at his daughters' local public school, or through various mathematical engagement initiatives. As a writer (and podcaster) he is focused on thought-provoking speculative fiction novels that weave in mathematics, science and philosophy. His most recent work, The Curve of Time, is a time travel novel that reminds us that we all have agency (though after 25 years, Rufus is convinced meeting his wife was fate).

Rufus Williams

Ana Mendoza is a civil rights attorney and UCLA Law graduate passionate about creating inclusive career pathways for underrepresented students. She leads education equity litigation and advocacy as the Education Equity Project Director at the ACLU of Southern California and mentors aspiring lawyers from diverse backgrounds through her blog and coaching platform. Her work aligns with BEAM’s mission to uplift youth through opportunity and reflects her broader commitment to systems change rooted in community voice.

Ana Graciela Najera Mendoza

David Crombecque is Associate Director of Special Projects at the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) at Caltech in Pasadena. Dr. Crombecque is also a faculty member in the Mathematics Department at the University of Southern California. Dr. Crombecque’s interests have focused on increasing participation in the mathematical sciences through outreach. He developed Summer Programs in Mathematics at USC for first-generation students. He is one of the co-directors of the LA Math Teachers Circle and the project leader of Math On the Border. Dr. Crombecque is helping AIM to collaborate with Los Angeles area math educators, teachers, mathematicians, and the local Math community at large.

David Crombecque

Ben Lewis is a father of three and an entrepreneur with multiple exits. Originally a software engineer and product manager at Microsoft and Google, Ben became an entrepreneur in 2008 when he co-founded Tapjoy. Ben helped grow Tapjoy to a business earning hundreds of millions in annual revenue and then left to co-found Karma, which was acquired by Facebook. He later founded Limbix which created digital therapeutics for adolescent mental health and was acquired by Big Health. Ben most recently co-founded Ensis which helps companies leverage AI for responding to RFPs. In his spare time, Ben coaches his children's elementary school math team and enjoys running and disc golf.

Ben Lewis

Denise is a seasoned technology executive with over 25 years of experience, including 15+ years as a Global CIO/CTO. She has led large-scale teams across diverse industries such as sports, media, entertainment, hospitality, commercial real estate, and wellness tech. Her leadership spans both public and private companies, including Unibail-Rodamco Westfield and Therabody. Denise is currently Chief Product & Technology Officer at LIV Golf. A California native and Pepperdine alumna with a B.S. in Management and MBA, she is passionate about mentoring youth in STEAM and supporting tech-driven equity initiatives. Outside of work, she enjoys sports, travel, and time with her family.

Denise Taylor