Kimberly Kendricks, Ph.D.

Dr. Kimberly Kendricks, a native of Dayton, Ohio, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a dual degree in Mathematics and Business in 2003/2004 and earned a Master’s and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, in 2006 and 2007, respectively. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Central State University, a Historically Black College and University, located in Wilberforce, Ohio. Since joining Central State University in 2007, she has served as the Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator for over $1.5 million internally to the university, and a sum total of $3.5 million collaboratively with neighboring institutions; and for the mathematics classroom, she has increased the success rate of students taking College Algebra, Trigonometry, and Differential Equations by over 20 percent.

Dr. Kendricks has a sincere passion for mathematics and mathematics education. By sharing her joy of mathematics, she aims to increase the success rate of students in mathematics, particularly minority students, thereby, increasing the number of students earning a degree in STEM. Through her success in the mathematics classroom, Dr. Kendricks now oversees a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant program to guide the success of high achieving students in STEM.

For her research, which is supported by NSF, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the National Signature Program, she takes mathematical theories and applies them to real world problems in robotics and gait analysis. Last summer, for example, she applied Groebner Basis Theory to a U.S. Department of Defense gait study project at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Dr. Kendricks also serves on the governing board of the Dayton Regional STEM School, and collaboratively works with the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright State University, and the University of Dayton to promote the advancement of women faculty in STEM through an NSF-ADVANCE program. Recently, she was selected to participate in the National Science Foundation’s Leadership Development Institute which will continue to shape and support her future pursuits in the academy.