Liza (Cope) Bondurant, PhD began her career in 2005 as a 7-12 math teacher in upstate New York and is currently an Associate Professor at Mississippi State University. Liza’s research focuses on bridging the gap between theory and practice in mathematics teacher education. She uses an equity-focused lens to study simulations, noticing, embodied cognition, and math action technology. She was a PI on two consecutive $1.2M Department of Education Math Science Partnership grants (2013-2018) and has been a research participant on several NSF-funded projects. She has over twenty peer-reviewed publications and has written and edited K-20 mathematics curriculum materials for Illustrative Mathematics, Learnzillion, and CK-12. Liza was selected as the 2020 College Teacher of the Year by the Mississippi Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM). She served as the President of the Mississippi Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (MAMTE) 2017-2020. Liza enjoys spending time with her family, walking, biking, and crafting.