Heather Dallas

UC Los Angeles

Executive Director Curtis Center

Heather Dallas has over 30 years of mathematics teaching experience, including 12 in local public schools and more than 20 in the Mathematics Department at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). As a public school teacher, Heather co-developed a specialized Algebra course for students previously excluded from Algebra and helped significantly increase student access to and success in AP BC Calculus. During this time, she taught and developed mathematics curriculum for the professional development efforts of both the California Math Project and the UCLA Mathematics Department. She served as the UCLA Mathematics Department Visiting High School Teacher in 2000-2001, after which the Department invited her to continue teaching as a lecturer. In this role, she has trained over 20 cohorts of senior mathematics majors to be secondary mathematics teachers

In 2007, the UCLA Mathematics Department invited her to serve as Executive Director of their newly established Curtis Center for Mathematics and Teaching. In this role, she has led numerous projects with districts and industry partners aimed at improving the quality of mathematics activity in K-12 schools. She served as PI on two California Math Science Partnership grants and directed four Smarter Balanced Mathematics Task Development Projects. In 2020, she was awarded $1.1M by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop and implement an Applied Mathematics Mentorship Program to increase student success in mathematics in three South Los Angeles schools.

Heather served on the 2010 California Academic Content Standards Committee, the 2012 California Framework Committee, the 2013 United States Department of Education’s Race to the Top Technical Review. She currently serves on the Oregon Technical Advisory Committee. She is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and winner of the UCLA Mathematics Department’s 2023 Sorgenfrey Distinguished Teaching Award which honors faculty for excellence in teaching. She is the daughter and grandaughter of teachers, with her father being the first LAUSD mathematics teacher to incorporate computers into the mathematics classroom.