Dr. Holm’s work centres on strengthening teachers’ mathematics-for-teaching – what scholars describe as a “profound understanding of fundamental mathematics”– so that elementary students experience mathematics as reasoning and sense-making rather than memorization of rules. A former elementary teacher, she has brought classroom credibility to her leadership as Coordinator of Laurier’s Bachelor of Education and Minor in Education programs since 2017.

In her pre-service mathematics courses (primary, junior and intermediate), Dr. Holm deliberately models the kind of instruction she hopes future teachers will enact. Her classes foreground models, manipulatives, and structured mathematical discussions that unpack not only how procedures work, but why they work. Rather than presenting rules first and offering illustrations afterward, she develops concepts from the ground up so that procedures emerge from reasoning. This approach moves beyond simplified or template-based resources and equips teachers to handle both straightforward and mathematically complex cases with confidence and accuracy.

Her impact extends well beyond Laurier. A contributor to an NSERC CRYSTAL project on teacher mathematics knowledge, Dr. Holm has published and presented more than 80 scholarly works and has shared her research nationally and internationally. In April 2025, she was invited to speak as a panellist at the Fields Institute on the mathematical preparation of future teachers.

To broaden access to high-quality mathematics-for-teaching resources, she founded Dr. Elle’s Math Academy, an open-access online platform featuring curriculum-aligned video modules that present multiple solution strategies grounded in reasoning, developmental understanding, and mathematical precision. Widely recognized for being both mathematically rigorous and pedagogically sound, these modules address a long-standing gap in accessible teacher resources.

Dr. Holm’s teaching and research excellence have also been recognized with Wilfrid Laurier University’s Donald F. Morgenson Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence and the Early Career Research Award.