Diana Proto Avino is currently and Independent Educational Consultant leading professional development workshops for teachers to improve mathematics education in the elementary school classroom. She is also the facilitator of The Connecticut Investigations Consortium-a group of districts in Connecticut who use common materials from Investigations in Data Number and Space. The group supports each other as they support student learning in the classroom with the goal of having all students reach their untapped potential as mathematical learners. The consortium is not funded by any organization but has been able to offer their districts new teacher/new to the grade professional development at no cost since their beginnings in 2006. At the time of her Milken Educator Award, Mrs. Avino's fourth- and fifth- grade classroom at The Abraham Pierson School in Clinton followed an inclusive, interdisciplinary curriculum that focused on two long- term research projects each year. These projects culminated in the publication of hardcover books that were then presented at a theme- based, activity-oriented open house. Students converted their research projects into multimedia Hypercard stacks through Mrs. Avino's Connecticut All Stacked Up program, which earned her a Celebration of Excellence Award from the Connecticut State Department of Education in 1995. That same award recognized her Playground Ponderings program, in which the school's blacktop was decorated with geometric shapes, which the students use to identify, formulate and solve problems in mathematical terms.
1970 Southern Connecticut State University, B.A.
