Kristin Hanna grew up in Littleton, Colorado and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder (go Buffs!), where she majored in Mathematics and Economics. Outside the classroom, she spent much of her time playing piccolo in the Golden Buffalo Marching Band. She went on to graduate school at Duke University (go Blue Devils!), earning both a Master’s degree and then a PhD in Economics in 2012. After completing her doctorate, Kristin spent two years in Boston working for a professor at Harvard Business School, where she rediscovered her passion for teaching. She then returned to Colorado and spent two years teaching economics at both the University of Colorado Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver. During this time, she also taught summer courses in Behavioral Economics to incoming ninth graders in Denver Public Schools. In 2016, Kristin transitioned to teaching high school mathematics and spent four years at Denver School of the Arts. There, she taught a wide range of courses, including 8th and 9th grade Algebra, Integrated Math I, Financial Algebra, AP Statistics, and a concurrent enrollment College Algebra course. After the pandemic began in spring 2020 — and with the birth of her first child that summer — Kristin took time away from the classroom to focus on her growing family. Now the parent of a kindergartener and a preschooler, she is excited to return to working with students and helping them build confidence and mastery in math and economics.

Random Fact: Kristin has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.