Rate My Professor Haley Yaple

Haley Yaple is the Chair of the Mathematics Department and Associate Professor of Mathematics at Carthage College, a position she has held since completing her Ph.D. in 2013. She received B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Yaple then pursued graduate studies at Northwestern University’s Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, where she earned an M.S. and Ph.D. under the advisement of Dr. Daniel Abrams. Her dissertation research centered on two projects: modeling the dynamics of religious shifts in societies and analyzing ferromagnetism, both employing the same basic differential equation. As a graduate student, she served as a teaching assistant and instructor, participated in math modeling workshops and conferences, and underwent pedagogy training.

In her role at Carthage, Yaple teaches undergraduate courses such as Applied Contemporary Mathematics, Calculus I and II, Discrete Structures, Differential Equations, Multivariate Calculus, Mathematics for Scientists and Engineers, Senior Research in Mathematics, and Independent Study. She emphasizes conceptual understanding and practical application of mathematical tools across diverse student groups, from math majors to engineers and non-STEM students. Yaple co-coordinates the Dual-Degree Program in Engineering and leads student research collaborations on topics like political partisanship shifts, Ising model modifications for ferromagnetism, and epidemic responses on networks. Her research interests include dynamical systems modeling, sociophysics, network science, and complex systems such as religious affiliation decline, internet access dynamics, and geoscience applications. She has attended multiple Mathematical Problems in Industry Workshops from 2010 to 2018 and a 2014 Math Research Community on temporal networks. A prominent publication is “Dynamics of social group competition: modeling the decline of religious affiliation” (Physical Review Letters, 107, 088701, 2011), co-authored with D.M. Abrams and R.J. Wiener. Yaple also represents the Mathematics Department in the 2024-26 TPSE Math program for equity and excellence in mathematics education.