Jae Baek, Assistant Professor at Illinois State University, received her PhD in math education from the University of Wisconsin under the direction of Thomas Carpenter, Co-founder of CGI. CGI guides the math and math education courses she teaches at Illinois State University. Dr. Baek’s research focusses on how students think about number, operations, and algebraic concepts, with a special focus on students’ thinking about multiplicative structure. She is especially interested in designing instruction based on children’s thinking so that elementary school students can develop a foundation for the multiplicative and algebraic concepts that they will study in middle and high school. She has been teaching CGI PD Seminars since 2000.