This blog is the personal web log of
Ron Buckmire, Ph.D.
Here's a brief biography (
updated November 2012)
Ron Buckmire
is most well-known for his volunteer activities, such as creating the Queer Resources Directory, the first comprehensive directory of LGBT and HIV/AIDS information on the Internet, in 1991, before the World Wide Web was invented. The QRD was one of several named plaintiffs in a successful Supreme Court challenge to the 1996 Communications Decency Act that was unanimously ruled unconstitutional in ACLU et al. v. Reno (521 U.S. 844, 1997). In 2006, he co-founded the Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition, the premiere Black LGBT political organization in Los Angeles. He currently serves as immediate past Board President for both the Jordan/Rustin Coalition and the Center for Health Justice. He is also a member of the national board of directors of Immigration Equality. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Equality California and the PlanetOut Corporation. During the 2008 campaign to defeat Proposition 8, the controversial (and probably unconstitutional) ballot measure to amend the California constitution to prevent same-sex couples from accessing civil marriage in California, he was co-chair of the Los Angeles County No On 8 Committee.
In his day job, Ron has been on the faculty of Occidental College, Barack Obama’s first alma mater, since 1994 and is currently an Associate Professor of Mathematics. His academic interests involve applied mathematics, numerical analysis, mathematics education, LGBT history and sexual orientation law. He served as chair of the mathematics department from 2005 to 2010. He is currently on leave from his tenured faculty position serving as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation, in Arlington, VA (Washington, D.C. metro area) until August 2013. Ron is an advocate for the incorporation of teaching with technology in the classroom and the practice of using active learning techniques to improve the teaching of mathematics. He is active in efforts to reform the teaching and learning of algebra in local schools nearby Occidental College in northeast Los Angeles. He has been recognized for his work serving as a role model for other out LGBT professionals in STEM careers.
Ron lives in the Montecito Hills section of Los Angeles (near Hermon, South Pasadena, El Sereno and Montecito Heights) with his legally married spouse Dean Elzinga and their two dogs Leenah and Dezmond. He blogs regularly at MadProfessah.com; You can follow his tweets at twitter.com/madprofessah.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this blog do not reflect the views of Ron Buckmire's employer(s).
