Pamela E. Harris

Pamela Estephania Harris (born November 28, 1983) is a Mexican-American mathematician, educator and advocate for immigrants. She is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was formerly an associate professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and is co-founder of the online platform Lathisms. She is also an editor of the e-mentoring blog of the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

Early life and career Harris first emigrated with her family from Mexico to the United States when she was 8 years old. Instead, she studied at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, where she earned two associate degrees in two and a half years. Harris was a Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) fellow in 2012. She was a Davies Research Fellow at the United States Military Academy, In 2022, she joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as an associate professor. In order to understand this representation she studies vector partition functions, in particular Kostant's partition function. Harris, along with Aris Winger, run a podcast, Mathematically Uncensored, through the Center for Minorities in the Mathematical Sciences. Starting in October 2020, they discussed current issues in mathematics that minorities encounter.

Recognition In 2020, Harris was selected as part of the inaugural class of Karen EDGE Fellows. In 2019, Harris won the Mathematical Association of America Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member, for her mentorship towards undergraduate research and for being a "fierce advocate for a diverse and inclusive mathematics community." She further received the early career Faculty Mentor Award from the Council of Undergraduate Research in the Mathematics and Computer Sciences Division.

She gave one of the Mathematical Association of America Invited Addresses at the 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings. In 2019 she was a featured speaker at the national conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). She was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, in the 2022 class of fellows, "for contributions to algebraic combinatorics, for mentorship of undergraduate researchers, and for contributions to a more equitable and inclusive mathematical community". In 2022 she will become a fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics, "For exceptional leadership in establishing programs and mentoring networks that support, encourage, and advance women and underrepresented minorities in the mathematical sciences; and for contributions through public speaking that create positive systemic change in the culture and climate of the mathematics profession."

In 2018 Harris was featured in the book Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics.