Hortensia Soto is a professor and graduate director in the Department of Mathematics at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on teaching K-16 teachers the joy, playfulness and mobility of mathematics through movement.  

Her work is unique in that while similar research is conducted at an elementary school level, she integrates it within undergraduate mathematics courses. Soto says she aims to show that mathematics isn’t just around us – it’s in us and a part of us.  

Soto began her academic career with an associate’s degree at Eastern Wyoming College. She later earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Chadron State College, a second master’s from the University of Arizona and finally a Ph.D in educational mathematics from the University of Colorado.

Her research has been published in the Journal of Mathematical Behavior, International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education and more.