Deirdre Smeltzer

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Deirdre Longacher Smeltzer (born 1964) is an American mathematician, math educator, textbook author, and administrator. She spent much of her career at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), where she served as a professor, then dean, and later vice president for undergraduate programs; she now works as Senior Director for Programs at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

Smeltzer earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics at EMU in 1987, with a minor in Bible study, and was encouraged by mentors to pursue advanced math. She earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Virginia, completing her Ph.D. in 1994 with a dissertation on difference sets in 2-groups under Harold Ward.

She taught at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota before returning to EMU in 1998, where she later chaired the mathematical sciences department from 2005 to 2012. As a leader, she directed cross-cultural programs, including trips to China, and in 2013 became EMU’s vice president and undergraduate dean, helping launch new programs in political science and global studies. She stepped down from those roles in 2019 and joined the MAA as Senior Director for Programs in 2020.

Smeltzer has coauthored two undergraduate textbooks: Methods for Euclidean Geometry (2010) and Journey into Discrete Mathematics (2018).