Safaa Dabagh
Mathematics and Statistics Instructor • Founder, Learn Without Walls • Los Angeles, California
learnwithoutwalls.com • github.com/sdabagh
Summary
Community college mathematics and statistics instructor with a decade of classroom experience across three Los Angeles campuses, and a Lebanese-American mother of five who started at community college herself. Builds free, open learning tools used in her own sections, and publishes quantitative research on placement reform, equity, and AI-assisted course design in community college mathematics. Teaching is designed for the students open-access colleges serve: first-generation, working, returning, and neurodivergent learners.
Education
Teaching Experience
Instructor of Mathematics, main focus on statistics.
- Math C1000, Introduction to Statistics (formerly Math 54), including sections paired with the Math 54C co-requisite support course
- Math 4/4C, College Algebra for STEM Majors with co-requisite support, and other mathematics courses
- Hybrid and online delivery; Canvas course design; AI-assisted assessment design studied in two published analyses
- Math C1000, Introduction to Statistics, POPP program section; other mathematics and statistics courses
- Math 205, Applied Statistics in R, two sections: a first course in statistical reasoning with the tidyverse for life sciences students
- Adjunct faculty: statistics and data science courses for nursing and health sciences graduate programs
Research and Publications
Rising Success, Persistent Gaps: Student-Level Statistics Outcomes Across California's Community College Placement-Reform Era (2018 to 2025). Community College Review (SAGE). Under review, submitted June 2026.
AI-Assisted Assessment Design in Mathematics and Statistics: A Multi-Course Bloom's Taxonomy Analysis of Cognitive Demand Shift. Teaching Statistics. Revise and resubmit.
Raising the Floor, Holding the Bar: Distributional Effects of AI-Assisted Course Design in Two Community College Mathematics Courses. EdArXiv preprint, DOI 10.35542/osf.io/x9nkw_v1.
Economic Disadvantage and Mass Shootings Across U.S. States, 2018 to 2024: A State-Level Panel Analysis. Research Square preprint, updated October 2026.
Methods used across these studies: logistic and negative-binomial regression with clustered standard errors, panel models with fixed effects, quantile decomposition with family-wise error control, bootstrap and trimming bounds, sensitivity analysis for unobserved confounding, and fully reproducible scripts.
Open Educational Resources and Projects
- Learn Without Walls (learnwithoutwalls.com): founder and author of a free, account-free learning platform with 21 courses and labs in statistics, college algebra, calculus, Python, R, SQL, data science, AI, and financial literacy, plus courses for young learners.
- Stats Without Walls: a browser-only statistics tool (descriptives through MANOVA, regression, probability calculators, sensitivity analysis for lurking variables) with the formula and a plain-English conclusion under every result; used in her statistics sections.
- Four open textbooks: You're Smarter Than You Think: Statistics, You're Smarter Than You Think: College Algebra for STEM Majors, Statistics in the Eye of a Nurse, and Applied Statistics Using R, all Creative Commons, written to be neurodivergent-friendly.
- Instructor packs: ready-to-teach slides, worksheets, and cheat sheets for statistics and algebra, free for any instructor to adapt.
- Canvas AI grading assistant: a Chrome extension and Cloudflare Worker that drafts feedback on Canvas submissions with the Claude API, in development for the Santa Monica College mathematics department.
Skills
- Statistics and data: R (tidyverse, ggplot2), Python (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn), reproducible analysis pipelines
- Teaching technology: Canvas course design, hybrid and online pedagogy, Universal Design for Learning, Desmos
- Development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Chrome extensions, Claude API
- Languages: English, Arabic
Professional Development
- Google AI for Educators, completed