About Our Organization

Richard Graf  is an award winning real estate and urban design professional. He is responsible for development of commercial and residential projects, an adviser to clients on development issues from urban to project scale, with specializations in historic tax credits and adaptive reuse. He was a Visiting Critic (1989-97) at Harvard University, concentrating on the relationship between real estate economics and urban design.

Susan Weiss (Webmaster) is an award-winning mathematics teacher with degrees in mathematics, education, special education, and instruction technology.  Her awards include the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching in Elementary Mathematics (2000), a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (1991), and a Compaq Technology Grant (1999) and inducted into the Mathematics Hall of Fame in Massachusetts (2011).  She has presented workshops in technology and discrete mathematics at local, regional, and national teachers’ conferences and served as an officer for many organizations devoted to education in mathematics and technology. She has taught mathematics in grades K-12, primarily in the lower grades.  Currently she is the  Technology Support Specialist and a Math Intervention Provider at the Solomon Schechter Day School (Newton).

Jay Landers (Treasurer) is a retired field controller for Kraft Foods. Currently he is the treasurer of New England Dollars for Scholars, the regional advisory board for Scholarship America. Currently he is the Treasurer (and was the past President) of Citizen Scholarship Foundation of Wakefield, MA. He has an MBA from Oregon State University. He resides at the start bike path in Davis Square with his spouse Jasper.

Monica Fernandes  (Auditor) grew up in Somerville, graduating from Somerville High School and won a Somerville Mathematics Fund Scholarship. She went on to Suffolk University, where she graduated with her BSBA and Masters in Accounting in 2008. She then earned her MBA and Masters in Taxation in 2012. She is a licensed CPA in MA and since 2018 has managed her own practice, M Accounting Services LLC, providing individuals, small businesses, and non-profits with accounting services.

Chase Orsello (Clerk) is the Head of End-to-End Technology & Innovation at MilliporeSigma in Burlington.. He has spent over 20 years in the Biopharm/Life Science industry, and has done thousands of experiments and lots of math to analyze them! He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from M.I.T. He has had a lifelong interest in teaching math and science to children. This included teaching a course for two summers with Citizen Schools in Boston. He currently lives in Somerville with his wife and where their son graduated from Somerville High and is now off at college!

Adam Foster is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, studying atomic physics and supernova remnants. He has lived in Somerville since moving to the USA in 2009. Before moving to the USA, he studied magnetically confined fusion energy at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland.

SG Sanford Bogage  ( Vice President) has been a math teacher for over 20 years and a resident of Somerville for over 10 years. With a Master’s Degree in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD, he was drawn to the SMF because of the work they do to help the local community and the balance of academic challenge, teamwork and thinking outside the box. In addition to his work as an educator, He has a small car collection and enjoy attending shows and events around New England and across the country.

Jesse Stern is a Computer Science PhD student at University of Chicago doing research in computational complexity and theoretical cryptography, research fields he began work in as a student at Somerville High School. During the summer, he also works as a research mentor, assisting motivated high school students with theoretical computer science research projects. He grew up in Somerville where he regularly attended Somerville Math Fund events from early grade school through high school. With the help of a Somerville Mathematics Fund Scholarship, he then studied Logic and Computation at the University of Rochester. In addition to his research, Jesse has also been heavily involved in disability advocacy throughout high school, college and graduate school.

Dan Oshima  grew up in Somerville and was a 2006 recipient of the Somerville Mathematics Fund Scholarship. He graduated from Harvard University in 2010 with an A.B. in Economics and has since worked in the finance and banking industries. He is currently a Senior Vice President in the Strategic Enterprise Risk Management group at Wells Fargo. In his free time he teaches judo and volunteers as a college counselor. He also enjoys researching real estate markets, traveling to try new cuisines and playing strategy board games.

Fred Bernadin is an engineer and programmer.  He has been nearby since 2000 when he started his doctorate in Chemical Engineering at MIT, where he developed computer simulations of polymers.  He currently works at BBN Technologies in Cambridge.   He works as a Scientist helping develop Speech and Language applications.   He is an avid year-round biker and enjoys keeping up on topics in Physics.

Sharon Rewerts, Vibro Dynamics

Patricia Jehlen (Honorary) served on the Somerville School Committee from 1975 until 1990 when she was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature. She served in the House until 2005, when she was elected to the Senate. She currently chairs the committee on Elder Affairs, and is co-chair of the committee on Education. Rep. Jehlen holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught history at Brookline High School and supervised student teachers at Simmons College. She is the mother of three SHS graduates, and the grandmother of two students at the Healey School in Somerville.