Our Team at Mathnasium of Downers Grove

Hemant Modi

Hemant holds a Master's Degree in Math and Chemistry. Since childhood, he possessed a passion for Math and teaching. For the past fifteen years, he has taught Math to be as simple as possible which enables his students to understand the basics of Math logic and help them build a solid foundation while taking the fear out of their mind. He strives to make learning fun and exciting without being burdensome to his students. Hemant believes that in today's business world, numerical aptitude is of paramount importance for success, regardless of career path. He views Mathnasium as an incredible model for teaching Math with a comprehensive curriculum and teaching method. He strongly believes that this technique should become a household phenomenon. This excellent program prompted him to join Mathnasium of Lakeway in Austin, Texas and be the instrumental member in the success story of establishing Math awareness among future generations. After having returned to Illinois' Chicagoland, Hemant continues to advance his teaching methods using Mathnasium model and promotes Math awareness in Chicago Suburb of Downers Grove, IL.

Patricia McCollom

Patricia holds a B. S. in Elementary Education from Northern Illinois University with a minor in math/science, and a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from National Louis University. The last fourteen years of her teaching career were spent teaching gifted education and serving as Gifted Coordinator for District 87, Berkeley. Since retiring from full-time teaching, Patricia works as a private tutor, and is enjoying helping students lessen their anxiety about Math and finding Math success at Mathnasium.

Kathy Thomas

Kathy has a B.A. in Mathematics with a focus in Secondary Education from the University of St. Francis. She has taught math at the high school level since 2005. In 2016, she earned a M.S. in Mathematics from Aurora University. Kathy realized her love of math in high school, when she was deciding what subject she would most like to teach. Her favorite part of teaching and tutoring is seeing the look of accomplishment a student gets when they succeed in a topic they thought was difficult. In her free time, she loves to read, cross-stitch, crochet, go bowling, and cheer on the Cubs and Blackhawks.

Ronald Tagliapietra

Ron has over 15 years of experience teaching every math course from Pre-Algebra through a math major. He has taught at 8 colleges and authored several high school math textbooks. When he isn't teaching math, his hobbies include climbing mountains, hiking to waterfalls, whitewater rafting, skiing, snorkeling, and skydiving. He has visited 1000+ waterfalls in the USA! In addition to math textbooks he has written several books related to his hobbies, including Waterfalls of the States, The Southern Sipers, The Seven Wonders of The World, and Great Adventures of the 20th Century.

Michael Anzzolin

Michael holds a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Northwestern University and a graduate degree of Masters of Business Administration with a finance concentration from DePaul University. He has extensive teaching experience at various community colleges (Du Page and Waubonsee) and graduate schools(Keller, DeVry, Lewis, Benedictine).Courses taught includes Business Mathematics, Algebra, Statistics and Economics. He believes in the importance of all students obtaining some level of understanding of mathematics to be successful in their academic and professional careers. At Mathnasium he strives to make the instruction as interesting and stimulating as possible.