Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) serves the 21 counties of rural northeastern North Carolina. In Fall 2000 ECSU administrators met with educators in area school districts to discuss their professional development needs. This paper reports on those expressed needs relevant to mathematics education and discusses ways to help achieve excellence in rural mathematics education. Among the challenges identified were (1) implementing state standards, aligning curricular materials with standards, and aligning preservice and inservice teacher education with the standards and school curricula; (2) connecting mathematics education to students' everyday lives by basing curriculum in local resources, environment, and events; and (3) desire of teachers to increase their mathematics content knowledge and improve their mathematics teaching skills. Mathematicians and mathematics educators can work together to ensure that university programs address mathematics teachers' needs and to develop resource materials. ECSU has increased the exposure of preservice teachers to mathematics courses to deepen teachers' understanding of the mathematics they will teach. In addition, ECSU professors are developing interdisciplinary modules for preservice teachers focused on analysis of research data collected in the nearby Great Dismal Swamp. Other strategies include involvement of mathematicians in mentoring or coaching programs for teachers, college-school collaboration to provide opportunities to discuss research and best practices in mathematics education, and development of university-school-community college partnerships to maximize resources for rural community schooling. (Contains 29 references.) (SV)