Nadezhda Aplakova de Carvalho
Nadezhda (Nadia) is a framework writer and implementation lead in the Cambridge Mathematics team.
Before joining Cambridge Mathematics, she had 21 years of experience in mathematics and mathematics education: 11 years working as a mathematics educator and educational leader and 10 years actively competing in mathematics competitions and presenting at conferences at national and international levels.
Nadia’s career in mathematics started in 3rd grade when she participated in two mathematics competitions, achieving first prize in both. By the end of 12th grade, she had participated in close to 100 competitions, conferences and other events at national and international levels and had won over 80 prizes. She was part of the extended national team (top 12 in the country) for the two major competitions at the time – the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad – and participated in training camps for both. Between 2010 and 2019 she mentored 13 gifted and talented students in developing their projects in Euclidean geometry. While working at the Ministry of Education in the UAE, Nadia took part in IMO 2019 as Observer A, trained the UAE team for the Gulf Mathematical Olympiad 2019 and helped to organise the first three Kangaroo Mathematics Competitions in the UAE in 2020–2022.
Nadia has taught IB (MYP), the Bulgarian National Curriculum, the English National Curriculum (including in an international context) and the UAE (following a CCSS-like) curriculum, as well as geometry at university level. During her time in the UAE, she led the Elite Stream Mathematics Assessment Team, collaborated closely with the mathematics curriculum teams and contributed to the full review of the UAE mathematics curriculum and the implementation of its replacement. Nadia established the processes for the Advanced Placement (AP) Program in Mathematics in all UAE public schools, which she then led. She also trained the AP Calculus teachers and later led the AP Program in Science. In addition, Nadia led large-scale planning and school improvement projects for the UAE’s public schools.
Academic qualifications:
PhD in Mathematics Education (viva pending)
Master of Mathematics Education
Bachelor of Applied Mathematics with a second major in Teacher of Mathematics Qualification