I am pleased to write directly to the AWM membership about my candidacy for the AMS council, supplementing my statement for the Notices and the AMS election materials. I became a member of the AWM when my wife (a mathematician) pointed out to me that AWM abbreviates `Association for Women in Mathematics'---not `Association of Women in Mathematics'. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1994 and since then have held postdoctoral positions at the University of Toronto, the MSRI (twice), and the University of Wisconsin--Madison. In 2000, I came to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as an Assistant Professor. My professional experience has included serving on the editorial board of the Concerns of Young Mathematicians from 1994 to 1999.
The welcome ebbing of the job crisis of the 1990's and the current demographic renewal of the U.S. Professoriate (40% of Mathematics faculty will retire this decade) is creating new professional opportunities and challenges. We will see further lowering of the explicit barriers faced by the AWM pioneers in their careers, but this will expose more subtle barriers to the professional fulfillment of women. For example, I am keenly aware of the difficult compromises and foregone professional opportunities faced when accommodating two careers and raising children. These `two-body' or family problems disproportionately affect young women mathematicians.
While the AMS has limited power to effect change, it can provide leadership on issues affecting our profession. If elected to the AMS council, I will work to ensure that it continues to run well and represents its membership, with a particular sensitivity to issues of concern to the AWM and to younger mathematicians.