Growing up, Laverne Chambers wanted to be a talk show host. But now she hopes to add to her community in a different way – as a math teacher.

Chambers is Northwestern’s first black female mathematics doctoral candidate. According to the Black Mathematicians Web site, fewer than 1 percent of all mathematicians are black, and only one-fourth of that 1 percent are women.

“The number of African Americans getting degrees in mathematics is miniscule,” said Eric Friedlander, chairman of NU’s math department.

Chambers, 26, is completing the second year of an expected five-year study in NU’s mathematics doctoral program. Although she excelled at math in grade school and enjoyed counting her allowance as a child growing up in Chicago, Chambers said originally she did not expect to become a professor in the subject.

“I chose math because I thought it would look good on my resume,” Chambers said. “But I really wanted to host a talk show.”

Chambers graduated from DePaul University in 1996 with a degree in mathematics and communications. She began working at DePaul’s student newspaper as the managing editor but decided against journalism as a career.

“I thought it was rather political and slimy,” she said. “I was going to use the media to change reality, to discuss African-American issues, but I found I didn’t really have the impact.”

Instead, Chambers decided to pursue a master’s degree in math at Howard University in Washington, D.C. After finishing her degree in 1998 and taking a year off to work, she resumed her studies at NU.

“I think it’s difficult for the average American to get into graduate programs of mathematics because you’re not properly trained,” she said. “You have to have interest.”

Friedlander added that society and ethnicity also influence an individual’s decision to follow a career path.

“(Being a math professor) is not as immediately obvious that you’re doing something that has a direct impact on the community as much as being an articulate lawyer, for example,” Friedlander said. “You can’t see so clearly why it’s going to affect the community later.”

But Chambers thinks teaching can be a “proactive way of changing society,” even though balancing community activities with school often can be stressful. Chambers said a considerable part of her life centers around a large extended family. In contrast, she noticed that most Ph.D. students focus just on their studies and only spend time with their immediate families.

“Everyone wants your time when you’re a bright person in a black community,” she said. In order to succeed at doctoral studies, you need what Prof. Friedlander calls “the focus factor,” Chambers said.

Despite course work, Chambers stays involved with extracurricular groups, working as the director of illiteracy prevention at her church and coordinating NU’s chapter of College Summit.

“I’m doing all of these things, and in the field of mathematics you eat, you drink, you breathe math,” she said.

Still, Chambers said the busy life is worth it.

“I thank God for the abilities I have,” Chambers said. “I’m very committed to Jesus Christ and my community.”

Chambers said successful black women are her role models.

“When my classes get really hard, and I feel like I can’t do it, I look at what they do and take inspiration from it,” she said.

Personal interest regarding the distribution of black career women prompted Chambers to conduct research on the history of math professors. She discovered that Evelyn Boyd Granville was the first black woman to graduate with a math Ph.D. in 1949, followed by Marjorie Lee Browne in 1950.

“If I see an African-American math major, I’ll share some of my research with them,” Chambers said. She has already shared her findings with two undergraduate students at NU this year.

Although a few black students have graduated from NU with Ph.D.s in math, some schools haven’t had any, Friedlander said. A comparatively large number of black math Ph.D. students have graduated from the University of Maryland, including three black women last year, according to the Feb. 16 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The math field disproportionately represents gender as well as ethnicity, Chambers said. Nine of 41 students in the NU Ph.D. math program are women.

“There’s not a lot of women in the department, period,” she said. “It’s been a male-dominated subject since the beginning of time.”

The uneven distribution of the sexes could be attributed to the stereotype that men have better logical ability, Chambers said. But next year, seven of the 10 incoming mathematics Ph.D. students at NU are women, said Melanie Rubin, mathematics program assistant.

Friedlander said NU encourages everyone to consider math, but that few will want to become professors.

“From an individual’s point of view, you have to decide what’s best for you,” he said.