Students arrive in our classroom from a wide range of backgrounds; there is therefore very little that we can assume of our students’ prior experiences. How best can we draw students in and then meet them where they are at? Teaching is arguably about equity and inclusion, as a practice. My approach starts by first asking students to extend grace and kindness to themselves and to others – from there, I use student-centered learning and evidence-based practices to promote equity across the biology curriculum, regardless of class size.

During development, neural stem cells (NSCs) generate diverse cell types that self-assemble to form neural circuits regulating distinct behaviors. How neural cell types are specified and assembled into neural circuits is poorly understood.

The study of cell shape has taught us many lessons about cellular function; however, we are just beginning to understand how this basic attribute drives form and function at the level of multicellular tissues. The goal of my research program is to uncover the emergent properties that cells use to generate and maintain higher-order tissue structures.

Many eukaryotes, pathogenic and free-living alike, encyst during their life cycle. How these various organisms sense their environment to determine when and where to differentiate is largely unknown. Our recent work on the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia has demonstrated that intestinal bile and elevated pH deplete cholesterol rich lipid rafts from the parasite plasma membrane which upregulates cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) production and initiates encystation. I will present our recent work on the regulation of encystation in Giardia.