About Me

 I'm Jessie Oehrlein. I am an assistant professor of mathematics at Fitchburg State University, where I mostly teach statistics and data analysis. I use POGIL and other inquiry-based methods in a lot of my teaching. My research interests are in atmospheric science, particularly polar stratosphere-troposphere interaction, and scholarship of teaching & learning in math, stats, and computer science. I have also worked on questions in graph theory and other areas of undergraduate education assessment/research. You can find my CV here.

I have previously taught math, statistics, and computer science at the undergraduate level at Fitchburg State University, Columbia University, and LaGuardia Community College, and I've taught K-12 students everything from combinatorics to Soviet ballet history through Art of Problem Solving, Wave Learning Festival, and Columbia/MIT Splash events.

I defended my PhD, advised by Prof. Lorenzo Polvani and Dr. Gabriel Chiodo, at Columbia University in May 2021. I graduated from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in May 2016 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

In my free time, I enjoy ballet and modern dance, watching entirely too many sports, and riding roller coasters. As of winter 2025, I have been on 232 roller coasters in four countries. My 200th was Storm Runner at Hersheypark. I blog about math, atmospheric science, and teaching at Math In The Sky, and I wrote about my four years at Olin at Burn Brilliant.