Gloria Ford Gilmer

Mrs. Gilmer through the years…

Gloria Ford Gilmer – born in Baltimore, MD on June 25, 1928. Mrs. Gilmer was a mathematician, international researcher and former Milwaukee, WI educator. She is the 1st African-American woman mathematician to have her papers kept in the Library of Congress’ Manuscript Division. Mrs. Gilmer was regarded as the “Hidden Figure” of Wisconsin. She was the first African American to:

1.   teach High School math in the Milwaukee, WI Public School district;

2. join the math faculty at Milwaukee Area Technical College;

3. become a math lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee;

4. earn a doctorate from Marquette University’s College of Education; and

5. sit on the Board of Governors for the Mathematical Association of America.

Mrs. Gilmer’s focused on ethnomathematics – which examines how math manifests itself in the daily lives of various world cultures. Her research and analysis led her to travel the world to study “the mathematics of the people”, from Hungary – Brazil – China – Egypt and Australia (to name a few).