Our Volunteer Tutors
Beth Segers
Beth Segers, the founder of PieRSquared, has tutored math weekly as a volunteer at middle and high schools in Roxbury, Dorchester and Jamaica Plain since 1991. She founded Pie R Squared in November, 2015 in partnership with Haley House. She has 30 years experience in financial services research, including roles in banking and at Fidelity Investments and Putnam Investments, and is currently a partner at Empirical Research Partners, where she is an analyst covering the asset management industry. She has her M.S. in Education from Wheelock College in teaching math and science.
Bob Case, Ph.D.
Bob is Northeastern Professor Emeritus, where he taught math for many decades. He is a beloved teacher of many of Boston’s public school math teachers, and considers math an instrument of social justice. He has led Bridge to Calculus, a summer program offering advanced math to high school students, as a lasting link between Northeastern and many underserved communities. He is an advisor to Pie R Squared via his long-standing affiliation with Haley House, as well as a mentor to tutors and students alike.
Eric Aker, M.D.
Eric Aker, MD, is a retired cardiologist who has been a volunteer math and science tutor since 2013. He received a BS degree from MIT, and an MD from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He loves math and science, and has been thoroughly enjoying working with the Pie-R-Squared students and staff.
​
Pete Allen
Pete works to drive down the cost of clean energy to scale its capacity globally. Peter currently is the Head of Finance for Ørsted US Offshore Wind and previously worked in finance at the U.S. onshore wind developer First Wind and the global renewable energy developer SunEdison. Before that, Peter was a senior consultant at the Parthenon Group, where he advised clients in the energy, manufacturing, and financial services industries. Pete enjoys tutoring students and has volunteered previously at New Mission High School at Boston Latin School. He holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar.
Pat Benzie
Pat is a math and pizza enthusiast living in the South End.
Steve Brierley, Ph.D.
Steve spent 29 years as an applied physicist/engineer at Raytheon doing research on advanced semiconductor materials, processing, and device physics. He earned an S.M. in electrical engineering from MIT, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Raytheon, he taught physics at Bryn Mawr College for a year as a sabbatical replacement. Since his retirement (2012) he has been teaching both calculus and physics as part-time faculty at several different area colleges and universities. While at Raytheon, he also participated for several years in a company-sponsored program tutoring students from Lawrence High School in math and physics.
​
Betsy Caruso
Betsy has tutored kids with diverse learning styles in kindergarten through grade eight for 15 years. As a student, she found math so challenging that she became passionate about finding ways to help other students who experienced the same difficulty. Betsy is a graduate of the Mindful Schools Mindful Educator program. She teaches mindfulness to students and their teachers in Boston.
Amy Chan
Amy previously taught math, science and test prep at the Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester. She currently works as a dermatology nurse practitioner at the Harvard University health services. In addition to volunteering, she is passionate about supporting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, practicing tai chi, playing the erhu, and going to Janelle Monae concerts.
Tom Chen, Ph.D.
Tom Chen serves as Instructor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research interests include missing data analysis, multivariate analysis, and statistical computing. Tom also collaborates with various Harvard faculty on a wide range of topics, such as diabetes self-care, hospital-acquired infections, electronic health records, insomnia treatment, and coal-fired carbon emissions. He earned his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Harvard University.
Dr. Todd Curtis, Ph.D.
Dr. Curtis, who founded the airline safety AirSafe.com in 1996, is a former Boeing safety engineer who was directly involved in numerous plane crash investigations, and was part of the engineering development team for the 777. In addition to authoring several books on aviation safety and security, he has been a frequent on-air aviation expert for CNN, BBC, NPR, and numerous other major news media outlets.
Seçkin DemirbaÅŸ, Ph.D - Tutor Emeritus
Seckin is a founding member of Pie R Squared and received his Ph.D., Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Seckin tutored with us while he was an instructor in the math department at Northeastern University. He is currently a post doctoral instructor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he’s working to launch a PieRSquared on their campus.
Peter Glenn
Peter is a former student in the Boston Public Schools (Boston Latin School) and has a master's degree in mathematics from Boston University, where he also graduated from the undergraduate college with Distinction in mathematics. He has participated for two summers in the PROMYS Program in Math for Young Scientists at Boston University, as a tutor and as a graduate student. Peter has taught calculus as a graduate student at Boston University and at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was in a PhD program for two years after his time at BU, before pursuing other interests. Peter is currently working as a writer and enjoys frisbee and bike riding, as well as tutoring in math.
Dave Harrington, Ph.D.
Dave is Harvard University Professor Emeritus, where he taught statistics for more than 35 years. His teaching experience ranged from freshman and sophomores to graduate students from many disciplines. He also conducted research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he served as Chair of the Department of Data Science. His work at Dana-Farber included designing and analyzing clinical trials of new therapeutic options and studying patterns of cancer care in underserved populations.
Claire Hollingswoth
Carrie Hollingsworth received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Trinity College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, respectively. Recently she has retired from 30 year of teaching mathematics 5-12 , first at the Winsor School and then at Newton South High School.
Jerry Howland
Jerry began teaching math in the BPS in 1970 and is beginning his 52nd year working with the Boston Public Schools where he has served as a math teacher, math department head, Headmaster, and recently as interim Headmaster at BLS and BLA. For thirty one years, Jerry has also hosted the high school mathematics segment of the cable television program Extra Help. The highlight of his career has been working with Bob Case in the Bridge to Calculus program for BPS students at Northeastern University.
Jennifer Jaruse
Jennifer has a B.A in math and special education and a M.Ed from University of Connecticut. She was teaching middle school math for 8 years before making the dive into high school level math and she absolutely loves the challenge. She currently teaches at Brookline High. Her pastimes include cooking and eating adventurous meals, reading books with characters who aren't like her at first glance, and playing kickball.
​
Mark Kovacs, Ph.D.
Dr. Kovacs is a retired (2013) program director/physicist who specialized in laser system development for both defense and commercial applications. He received his S.B and Ph.D in Physics from MIT where he specialized in atomic and molecular laser systems. He is a graduate of Northeastern University’s RE-SEED program training retired scientists and engineers to support science education in local middle and high schools. For the past 4 years, he volunteered at the An Wang Middle School in Lowell, MA supporting 8th grade science and math classes. Dr. Kovacs also volunteers as the Chairman of the Windham, New Hampshire Local Energy Committee focusing on improving energy efficiency and bringing renewable energy resources to the Town.
Evan Lewis
Evan Lewis is an engineer at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. While studying for his civil engineering degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he led youth summer programs for its college of engineering. He also tutored for the AVID/TOPS program in Madison Metropolitan School District. He came to Boston in 2013 to attend B.U. School of Law, and he joined PieRSquared after graduating in 2016.
Suzanne Loconto
For many years, Suzanne taught all levels of high school math, from algebra to calculus, as a full time teacher. She received her B.A. in mathematics from Providence College, M.A in mathematics and M.Ed. from Boston College. While at Boston College, Suzanne was a teaching fellow for undergraduate classes. Her interests include traveling, hiking, and reading. She currently teaches high school math at Fontbonne Academy.
Bob Ludwig
Bob has an M.S. degree in mathematics. For most of his career he used analytical thinking and problem solving skills in addressing business problems as a management consultant. Prior to volunteering with PieRSquared he volunteered for seven years to help 8th grade students in a youth leadership development program prepare for the math portion of the Independent School Entrance Exam. Bob leads our SAT Prep study program, a 6-week intensive course with study guides and practice exams.
Luis Mejia
Luis is an MBA graduate from Georgetown University with an engineering and clinical background, focusing on healthcare technology. He loves exploring the outdoors whether it is biking, hiking or running.
Linda Packard
Linda Packard has spent over 30 years conducting market research and competitive intelligence for the financial services industry. After a brief period in the mutual fund industry, she spent the majority of her career in the insurance industry analyzing relative product price, product risk, financial statements and market position. She began tutoring students in college and later occasionally tutored friends and family before joining PieRSquared. Linda holds a BA in mathematics from Boston College.
James Packard
James Packard is a sophomore at Northeastern University studying computer engineering, computer science and mathematics. He is always enthusiastic to share his passion for computer science and math. James is the developer of PieRSquared's registration system and a calculus tutor.
Monika Pichler, Ph.D.
Monika has a PhD in math from Northeastern University and has been working as a data scientist in biotechnology and tech consulting since graduating. Monika has been tutoring math since her high school days and is always up for chatting about all the exciting real-world applications of calculus and differential equations.
Chas. von Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Trained in aerospace engineering and laser physics, “Chaz” is a retired research scientist who volunteers at the John D. O’Bryant School for Mathematics & Science. He is a graduate of Northeastern’s RE-SEED Training Program for retirees assisting teachers in high school and middle school STEM areas. He has been helping in Physics, Engineering, Robotics, and Chemistry classes and now, also, math tutoring with PieRSquared. His favorite book in the 9th grade (1955) was One, Two, Three … Infinity by George Gamow.
Quinn Angelo Soto
Quinn has a B.A. in Math, and a Masters in Teaching, both from Northeastern University. His life, love and passion is mathematics eduction. His hobbies are bowling and Clash of Clans, and he has recently started watching Game of Thrones. He currently teaches at Boston Day and Evening Academy in Roxbury, and has previously worked at the Young Peoples Project.
Louis Tsien
Louis is a retired software engineer and program manager with degrees in math, engineering, and business from MIT and Northeastern. He has worked for multiple companies in engineering, marketing, and customer support.
PEER TUTORS
​
Jen Clifford is a senior at Vassar College.
Elysse Gonzales is a sophomore at the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science.
​