Chairsty returned to school as a non-traditional student, graduating from Montana State University Billings in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a teaching option. While earning her degree, she began tutoring and teaching part-time in the Academic Support Center at MSU Billings where she was first exposed to developmental education. Although her plan was to teach mathematics in a high school setting, she enjoyed teaching adults and began teaching for the ASC full-time in 2006, serving as the Assistant Director of the Academic Support Center in 2010. She earned a master’s degree in mathematics education from MSU Bozeman in 2011. She also attended the Kellogg Institute, earning a certification in adult and developmental education in 2012. Chairsty has also had the privilege of serving as chair of the Developmental Education Department for three years.

Chairsty is passionate about education and developmental education in particular. She enjoys seeing the “light” turn on for her students. She strongly believes that every student has the potential to further his/her education while recognizing that life challenges often mitigate against the traditional full-time education pathway for many students. She was instrumental in developing and implementing a corequisite mathematics at MSU Billings for Contemporary Mathematics (liberal arts mathematics) and Introductory Statistics. The data is still coming in, but the initial results are staggering! On average, over 70% of developmental students are completing their COLLEGE-LEVEL mathematics by taking the corequisite course…some semesters even higher!

Chairsty and her husband are currently in the adoption process and are hoping to fly back to Ethiopia soon to bring home their three children ages 12, 7 and 3.