Rate My Professor Damien Adams

Damien L. Adams serves as a Mathematics Instructor at Portland Community College's Rock Creek campus, where he began as an adjunct in Fall 2017 and holds continuous employment. He teaches Calculus I, II, III, Vector Calculus I and II, and Linear Algebra, and has developed online versions of Calculus III and Vector Calculus II. Adams founded and advises the PCC Rock Creek Math Club in October 2017, organizing events including Pi Day celebrations, math competitions, OMSI field trips, Integration Bee, Student Math League, and symposia on topics like topology and AI. He created and oversees the podcast Women in Math: The Limit Does Not Exist, developed through the AMATYC Project ACCCESS, which promotes women in mathematics and has garnered over 10,000 plays worldwide. Adams has chaired committees such as Calculus Textbook, CCOG, and Math SAC Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and represented PCC on the Common Course Numbering Math Subcommittee from 2022 to 2025, contributing to the implementation of MTHs 251Z, 252Z, and 253Z.

Adams earned an A.S. in University Studies from College of the Redwoods in 2007, a B.A. in Mathematics with a minor in Music from Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt) in 2010, and an M.S. in Mathematics from San Jose State University in 2013. His master's thesis, Galois Theory and the Hilbert Irreducibility Theorem, highlights his interests in these fields. Prior to PCC, he was a full-time tenure-track Mathematics Instructor at Cabrillo College from 2014 to 2017, teaching over 110 semester units from beginning arithmetic to linear algebra, advising the Cabrillo Math Group, serving as a PREP instructor for three semesters, and participating in shared governance. Earlier roles include adjunct instructor at Cabrillo in Fall 2013, Teaching Associate at San Jose State University leading calculus workshops and developmental math labs, teaching College Algebra, and tutoring at ThinkTank Learning. A first-generation college student from Humboldt County, California, Adams has been married since 2009.