Florence Rita Sullivan, a professor of math, science, and learning technologies in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, passed away at her home in Easthampton, Massachusetts, on June 1. She was 59 years old.
A native of California, Dr. Sullivan was a graduate of New College of California. She held a master’s degree from San Francisco State University. She earned a master’s degree in education and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City.
Professor Sullivan’s research was funded by the National Science Foundation with the goal of developing programs to integrate robotics and computer science into the curriculum in cooperation with teachers in the public school systems of Holyoke and Springfield, Massachusetts. She was the author of Creativity, Technology, and Learning: Theory for Classroom Practice (Routledge, 2017).