As the Editor-in-Chief of CJSMTE, I have the great pleasure of reading many manuscripts. After the peer-reviewed process, some manuscripts are published, others are transferred to other Springer journals, and others do not meet the requirements or specifications. Each manuscript tells a story about the interaction between the researcher(s) and the data. The stories provide a context and an interpretation of what that data means to the author(s).

I read Egan Chernoff’s commentary with great interest. Chernoff (2023) writes about the various journals of the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society (SMTS). He provides a history of the journals and his role as editor for one of the journals: the vinculum. He writes about the challenges of having his work in these professional journals recognized as research articles. His story gave me an opportunity to think about my own journey with mathematics, research, and professional organizations.

The way I recall learning geometry in middle school was making geometric shapes and hanging them from the ceiling in June. Geometry was always taught at the end of the year and so I never gathered my experience with the many topics of the unit. This all changed when I was in my first placement as a preservice teacher in a high school near Ottawa, Ontario. My host teacher was Jeri Lunney, who loved geometry and she taught me so much about the special relationships of angles, triangles, and geometric proof. I was so connected to her vision of teaching geometry that I completed my doctorate in education in 1997 with a thesis that investigated the use of technology in teaching middle school geometry. Sadly, Jeri Lunney passed away in June 2023.

I have been very involved in professional organizations throughout my career. I was the chair of the Annual Conference of the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO) in 1990. Two years later, I was president of ECOO and am now a life member. The use of technology in the teaching of mathematics continued to be an interest of mine over these many years of teaching. It lead me to be a founding member of the GeoGebra Institute of Canada in 2009 and I continue to support this organization.

I was also a founding member of the Independent Schools of Ontario Mathematics Association (ISOMA) in 1992 and a former chair of the 2004 annual conference and president of the Psychology of Mathematics Education – North America in 2004. In each of these positions, I was able to further enhance my professional and research experiences. It is through these interactions with professional and research organizations that I believe we bring our research alive.

I am sure there are others who have an integrated research and professional profile. I encourage you to share your experiences and journey with others by writing a commentary and submitting it to the CJSMTE. I hope that others can learn from your story about these integrations to help emerging academics to pursue these valuable venues as well as to help tenure and promotion committees and merit committees better understand the value of these contributions to educational theory and practice (email cjsmte@utoronto.ca for more details).