About Us
Founded in 1993 and based in Dallas, TX, IntelliChoice is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that supports a network of volunteers who provide free math tutoring to underprivileged children.
We believe that a solid understanding of mathematics is the key to professional success. This is especially important for children from minority, impoverished, immigrant, and refugee families. We seek to inspire them to achieve, and we support their quest to become accomplished professionals and role models for their communities.
Our children interact with devoted, accomplished tutors who are honor students at high schools and colleges, graduate students in STEM fields, professionals, and professors. IntelliChoice brings children, parents, and volunteers together to support academic excellence in a welcoming, caring community.
IntelliChoice offers four programs to support academic achievement:
♦ On-site tutoring by more than 350 tutors for roughly 850 children at 17 locations in Texas and Arizona
♦ Online math tutoring anywhere in the world, at any time, through the IntelliChoice.Org website
♦ Summer SAT Prep Camp
♦ Scholarships to support our alumni when they matriculate at college
We seek to expand our capabilities and resources to serve as many students as possible in the US and around the world.
Our Mission and Values
Our mission is to support economically disadvantaged children to attain scholarly excellence through mathematics and education. We intend to develop in children an interest in mathematics as a means to prepare them for college and successful careers in academia, business, and the professions.
We believe that a solid foundation in mathematics is the key to academic success. We have no doubt that educating children requires human interaction – not just books and computers.
First Tutoring Sessions
♦ Buchanan Elementary, Baton Rouge, LA: Tutoring sessions take place Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for grades 2-5.
♦ McKinley High School, Baton Rouge, LA: Students meet in the library on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
Official Nonprofit Registration
♦ IntelliChoice, Inc. is registered as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in TX.
First Branch Opens
♦ First branch opens at the Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library (MLK Branch) in Dallas, TX.
♦ Harrington Branch opens at the Harrington Public Library in Plano, TX.
♦ VCC Branch opens at the Vietnamese Community Center in Garland, TX.
♦ Denton Branch opens at the Emily Fowler Public Library in Denton, TX.
♦ Skyline Branch opens at the Skyline Public Library in Dallas, TX.
♦ Carrollton Branch opens at the Promised Land Family of Faith in Carrollton, TX.
♦ Lewisville Branch opens at the Lewisville Public Library in Lewisville, TX.
♦ Preston Branch opens at Preston Highlands Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.
♦ Shonto Branch opens at Nazarene Church in Shonto , AZ (First expansion outside of Texas serving Navajo Native American Reservation).
♦ Ethiopian Branch opens at St. Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Garland, TX.
♦ Wesley Branch opens at Wesley-Rankin Community Center in Dallas, TX.
♦ Leupp Branch opens at Leupp Baptist Church in Leupp, AZ.
♦ UTD Chapter (IntelliChoice of UTD) is established at The University of Texas at Dallas (First student club at college).
♦ Coppell HS Chapter (IntelliChoice of Coppell HS) is established at Coppell High School (First student club at high school).
♦ Preston Branch relocates to the Renner Frankford Public Library in Dallas, TX and is renamed as the Renner Branch.
♦ Carrollton Branch relocates to Dallas Oneness Church in Carrollton, TX.
♦ MPCC Branch opens at Melting Pot Community Center in Dallas, TX (Serving Nepalese and other immigrant/refugee communities).
♦ Wesley Branch relocates to the North Oak Cliff Public Library in Dallas, TX, and is renamed as the NOC Branch.
♦ Colony Branch opens at The Colony Public Library in The Colony, TX.
Our Team

Dr. Lee has been a founder and a president of IntelliChoice, Inc., a non-profit organization providing free math tutoring programs for underprivileged youths at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and at 16 other learning centers since 2004. Prior to IntelliChoice, he created and ran a similar program under the name of the Math School of Baton Rouge from 1993 to 2001 while he was on the faculty of Louisiana State University.
Dr. Lee is currently a professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas. He earned a BS degree in Electronics from Kyungpook National University in Korea, an MS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD from North Carolina State University (1987). He was a visiting scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC in 1991.
Dr. Lee has been the recipient of many awards, including the Ambassador of Diversity Award from UT Dallas (2011), the Service Award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Korea (2012), the Community Hero Award from Tech Titans (2015), and the IEEE Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award in Informal Education (2017).

Dr. Jungsoon Lee has founded Intellichoice and been involved with underrepresented students in free math tutoring for more than 25 years with Dr. Gil Sik Lee. She has made the placement tests to evaluate the level of students in IntelliChoice. Since she joined at The University of Texas at Dallas, she has organized the E2 Brainiacs Mathematics Competition sponsored by Electrical Engineering Department at UTD from 2010 to 2012. The goal is to promote an interest in mathematics to inspire the next generation of great electrical engineers. She hopes that some of her students will grow up to be the next Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Nikola Tesla, or Nobel Prize winner Jack Kilby (inventor of the integrated circuit).
Dr. Jungsoon Lee received her BS and MS in Mathematics Education from Kyungpook National University in Korea, MS in Mathematics from North Carolina State University, and PhD in Mathematics from Louisiana State University. She was a high school teacher for three years in Korea and associate professor of mathematics at Southern University with tenure from 1992 to 2008. She has led successful Summer Enrichment Youth Program for at-risk students for three years (2000-2003) supported by Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. She has served as a co-chair and the chair of the math contest for the middle schools and high schools in Louisiana from 2002 to 2008. Each year 400 to 500 students from 25 to 35 schools participated in the contest. Currently, she is a senior lecturer of Electrical & Computer Engineering at UTD and is teaching advanced engineering mathematics and linear algebra.

Anil has been a tutor at Ethiopian branch since December 2017 and manager since December 2018. Anil enjoys interacting with kids and seeing the joy in their eyes as they learn and grow. Anil holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from I.I.T. Bombay, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Washington University, St.Louis, and an MBA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He owns and runs a medical practice in Allen, TX. Besides volunteering, he loves to spend time outdoors and plays golf.

Dr. Nam has been a tutor and academic advisor of IntelliChoice for the past 4 years. She worked as an assistant professor of Bioengineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. She holds a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University and a BS in Biology from Seoul National University.

Abhay Sawant joined IntelliChoice in December 2017. He regularly volunteers at various locations and helps define technology solution for IntelliChoice organization. He is leading the effort to bring online tutoring to IntelliChoice.
Abhay has run his own software business for 10 years. Prior to that, he has held senior technical and management positions in telecom companies. Abhay attended Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay for his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and University of MInnesota, Duluth for his master’s degree in Computer Science.

Dr. Heitjan is a professor of Statistical Science at Southern Methodist University and a professor of Clinical Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He holds a BSc in Mathematics and an MSc and a PhD in Statistics, all from the University of Chicago.

Ovidio has served as a branch manager at Carrollton Branch since February 2018. He is a graduate student in Electrical Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas. He enjoys spending his free time practicing Kung Fu and doing outdoor activities like rock-climbing and hiking.

Dr. Choi has served as a branch manager at Colony Branch since November 2017. He initiated this branch at The Colony Public Library. He is very enthusiastic in teaching mathematics for young kids.
Dr. Choi is currently a professor in Mechanical and Energy Engineering at the University of North Texas where he is conducting his research in small scale manufacturing and instrumentation such as characterization of micro and nanoscale thermal properties.
He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS and a BS from Seoul National University. He worked at ETH Zurich, Switzerland for 3.5 years as a lecturer and Senior Scientist.

Elijah Harbut’s interest in tutoring began his freshman year of high school; having grown up around Metro Detroit, he was privy to many of the inequalities present in the modern education system. His work began with Summer in the City, an organization that provides Summer experiences (“painting, playing, and planting”) to under-resourced youth. He began volunteering at the MLK Branch in 2019. Currently, he is serving as the branch manager for the Online Middle School (2) Branch and conducts outreach for IntelliChoice. Elijah studies molecular biology as a Eugene McDermott Scholar at the University of Texas at Dallas. Outside of IntelliChoice, he enjoys doing biological research, playing his guitar, reading, learning languages, and programming.

Graduated in 2017 with a biology degree at Texas A&M, Abraham has been actively volunteering since 2019. A member of the honor society, Phi Beta Kappa, he is currently working on his goal of attending medical school. Other hobbies that he enjoys are exercising and reading books.

Dr. Kulkarni started to volunteer at Ethiopian Branch in September 2017 and then she has served as a branch manager since December 2018. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from UT Austin. She has been working for Ericsson in Plano for 22 years, first in R&D and then in RF Engineering Operations. Her hobbies include music, reading, watching movies and Broadway shows and gardening.

John Davis has served as Branch Manager of the Harrington Branch since January of 2020. John is a Senior at the University of Texas at Dallas pursuing degrees in Biology and Healthcare Management and is a member of the Eugene McDermott Scholars Program, Collegium V Honors College, Davidson Management Honors Program, and Phi Kappa Phi honor society. John often spends his free time with his wife walking their dog 7 miles a day, playing boardgames with friends, and leading a few different clubs on campus.

Jihae has served as a branch manager at IRC branch since September 2018 but has been volunteering for IntelliChoice for over 4 years. Jihae studies Business at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She is passionate about helping decrease inequality in education and income across America, and outside of volunteering, she enjoys playing piano, reading, and working out.

Daniel has been volunteering since 2016 and served at the MLK and Skyline branch. He is currently attending the University of Texas at Dallas as a finance and economics double major and plans to graduate in 2022. Although Daniel has many interests, he finds the most enjoyment in golf. He started when he was young and has enjoyed playing throughout his childhood. He remembers having the most exciting learning experiences during elementary school and wishes for others to experience the same.

Austin Williams has served as a branch manager of the Renner Branch since August 2018, but been involved with IntelliChoice since early 2018. Austin studies Mechanical Engineering as a Eugene McDermott Scholar at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is interested in materials science and currently works at a 3D printing materials company and has participated in polymer development research. Finally, Austin’s outside interests are largely dominated by working with children, having years of experience tutoring in school subjects as well as teaching recreational and competitive swimming skills.

Nicholas Zahabizadeh has been volunteering with Intellichoice since September of 2018 and became a branch manager of Skyline in January 2018. His passion for helping others originates from key guidance from mentors he had in high school that has led him to academic success.
Nick studies electrical engineering and marketing at the University of Texas at Dallas and is an active member within the UTD Center of Professional Sales.
Nick’s free time is largely consumed by his regular hobby of writing for absurdist and science fiction magazines, as well as playing tennis on the weekends.

Dr. Panchumarthi has served as a branch manager in San Antonio since Spring 2020. Currently, she is working at Stanford school of medicine as a Clinical Genomics Scientist. She obtained a PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology/Neurobiology from the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. She is an established curriculum developer, instructional designer and lecturer of post-baccalaureate courses in human genetics and genomics. Throughout her career, she has been very passionate about teaching and training and has taught students at various levels.

Dr. Henderson has served as a branch manager at TMFF Branch since Spring 2018. She began volunteering at the Harrington Branch in 2007 when she joined UT Dallas as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Henderson holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tuskegee University in AL and an MS and a PhD in EE from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research is in the area of Microwave Engineering.

Dr. Bekele is currently a professor at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. He holds a PhD in Geography from West Virginia University, MPhil, from the University of Oslo, Norway, and a BA from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.