Earth’s interior, and wildfire management in
populated areas.
“When it comes to unsolved problems,
we don’t know if the answers are just
around the corner or light years away,”
Conrey said.
AIM now hosts dozens of workshops
each year to tackle some of these problems.
It also connects educators with the
professional community.
Conrey’s oldest daughter Brianna
Donaldson heads up AIM’s Math
Teacher Circles program, which connects
middle school teachers with professional
mathematicians to work on problems
together, while sharing best practices. The
program is well on the way to its goal to
establish 300 self-sustaining circles across
the country.
According to Brianna, “My father tends
to bring out the best, most creative side
of people. I have learned a great deal from
working with him. He taught me how to
think critically and have fun doing it.”
Math = Fun + Fringe Benefits
As AIM gained momentum, Conrey
began to think about what could be done
38
outside the traditional classroom to create
opportunities for youth who showed an
interest in math. In 2002, he established
Morgan Hill Math as an outreach program
in conjunction with Morgan Hill’s
K-12 schools.
According to Lori Mains, Program
Director at Morgan Hill Math, more than
2,000 students have benefitted from the
program to date.
Among the beneficiaries of Conrey’s
mentoring is Mark Holmstrom, a Live Oak
High School grad who is now studying
mathematics at Stanford University.
“Dr. Conrey’s teaching style was unique.
Rather than simply lecturing he asked us
thought-provoking questions and worked
through problems with us. We’d cover his
table with a big sheet of paper and by the
end of a lesson, it would always be filled
with our best ideas on how to solve the
problems.”
Sobrato High School senior Rachel
McMillan aspires to become a Neurologist.
She credited Dr. Conrey and the Morgan
Hill Math program with helping her
“understand the importance and real-world
applications of math” and prepare for
G M H T O D A Y M A G A Z I N E
MAY / JUNE 2015
advanced studies in college.
Lori Mains’ son Peter said the skills he
learned in Morgan Hill Math were vital
to his studies at UC Berkeley: “Nearly
every math, science, and engineering class
boils down to being able to reason your
way through a problem”. Peter added that
without such skills, “there is no way I could
have succeeded in college courses.”
Math Man, Family Man
Conrey, his wife Janet and their three
children have enjoyed South County
community life since moving here in the
late 1990s.
Janet teaches in the Computer Science
and Information Systems Department at
Gavilan College. The couple’s younger
daughter Jennifer is an obstetrics nurse at
St. Louise Hospital and their son Rick is
building a successful high tech career which
began at Morgan Hill-based Velodyne,
a frontrunner with technology for
autonomous or self-driving vehicles. He’s
now at OM Audio, another Morgan Hill
innovator.
According to Janet, “Brian is the
creative, ambitious dreamer in our
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