My background is in molecular genetics. My Ph.D. was with Dean Dawson at Tufts Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences (Dean is now at the OMRF). I generated and characterized yeast mutants that were defective in accurate meiotic chromosome segregation. I became very interested in chromosome structure, particularly chromosomal rearrangements in oral cancer. As a post-doc in Susanne Gollin’s lab in the Dept. of Human Genetics at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of PIttsburgh I had the opportunity to use new molecular cytogenetics techniques to assess consistent chromosomal rearrangements in oral squamous cell carcinomas.

Since then I have focused on undergraduate education in the biomedical sciences, including intro bio, allied-health micro and cancer bio. I have made an effort to seek funding for SoTL projects in these courses, and to publish the results of collaborative research assessing the impact of educational strategies on student learning in target courses.