2026 President-Elect

Congratulations to Beth Schussler, Ph.D. (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), who has been elected as SABER's next President-Elect. We look forward to her leadership and service to the society. Dr. Schussler's term begins on September 1st.

Outgoing Past President

We'd like to extend an immense thank-you to Miriam Segura, Ph.D., outgoing Past President. Miriam has served on the Executive Committee since 2021, beginning her service as SABER Secretary. Throughout her service, she has overseen many initiatives across the organization, including launching the PEER (Persons Excluded due to Ethnicity and Race) Network, helping to establish SABER's first paid staff position, and developing the Professional Development in Evidence-Based Teaching Seminar Series, just to name a few!

Miriam's term officially ends on August 31. Please join us in thanking her for her many years of service to SABER!

2026 Award Recipients

Mary Pat Wenderoth Lectureship Award

Dina Newman, Ph.D.
Rochester Institute of Technology

Excellence in Biology Education Research Early Career Faculty Award

Daniel Grunspan, Ph.D.
University of Guelph

Seed funding for this award was provided by Codon Learning and SABER member, Jeremy Hsu. 

Bill Wood Graduate Student Talk Awards

Rose Sofia
Auburn University
"How international identity and institutional context shape student responses to discipline-specific terminology in undergraduate biology." Other authors: Bellard, Raleigh; Davidyan, Arik; Rice, Mallory; Ballen, Margaret

Ray Potter
University of Washington
"Anxiety Doesn’t (Just) Add Up: Evidence of Non-Linear Relationship with Performance in Postsecondary Introductory STEM Classes." Other authors: Busch, Carly; Xu, Shangmou; Eddy, Sarah; Theobald, Elli

The 2026 Wood awards were sponsored by Codon Learning. 

Poster Awards

Undergraduate Poster Award Travis Ray Middle Tennessee State University "Are we Preparing Biology Students to Talk About Vaccines? Exploring Student Perspectives" Other authors: Barnes, Elizabeth

Graduate Student Poster Award

Ijeoma Nwokolo Western Michigan University "Baseline Scientific Literacy, Quantitative Reasoning, and Perceived Barriers among Non-Majors in an Introductory Biology Laboratory" Other authors: Emily Driessen; Luke Kinsey; Samantha Gosser-Wolfe

The Graduate Student Poster Award was sponsored by Pearson.

Travel Award Recipients
In 2026, SABER provided 18 Travel Awards totaling $10,800 in support for members attending the Annual Meeting.

Nouran Amin
Summer Blanco
Hannah Blevins
Jean-Louis Bru
Benjamin Chan
Nicole Chlebek
Poorvi Datta
Krista Donis
Christina Gutierrez Ford
Clayton Mazur
Delainey McManus
Julia Mellary
Ijeoma Jacinta Nwokolo
Rachel Potter
Sumedha Ravishankar
Nicole Scheuermann
Corey Stewart
Irene Unazi

Thank You to Our Outgoing
Committee Chairs!

Cissy Ballen, Invited Speaker
Ariel Chasen, Diversity & Inclusion
Robert Erdmann, Data Analysis & Stewardship
Faith Frings, DBER Scholars-in-Training
Angela Kaczowka, Mentoring
Claire Meaders, Abstracts
Mel Melendrez-Vallard, PEER
Anita Schuchardt, Annual Conference

SABER and The SimBio Foundation (SBF) proudly announce the fourth year of funding for Biology Education Research. The Foundation provides small grants each year to investigators with ideas for making biology education more effective. The Foundation is particularly interested in new ideas that may need preliminary results before looking for larger funding sources.

The application window will be from April 5-20, 2026. For application details and eligibility criteria, visit https://simbiofoundation.org/.

Thanks to the SimBio Foundation for presenting this exciting opportunity!

October 27, 2025 – The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant to the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) to expand support for biology education research (BER) among faculty at two-year colleges. The grant will fund travel, registration, SABER membership, and participation in a year-long Faculty Learning Community as well as the 2026 SABER Annual Meeting. Participants will receive professional development, mentoring, and opportunities to collaborate with four-year college faculty.

Grant Objectives:

• Deepen two-year faculty interest in BER by supporting their attendance at the SABER annual meeting through travel awards, complimentary registration, and stipends.
  
  

• Sustain a two-year faculty community in BER via a year-long Faculty Learning Community (FLC) that provides mentoring, peer support, and professional development.

Founded in 2011, SABER is a professional organization dedicated to improving postsecondary biology education through research, evidence-based teaching, and professional development. With nearly 700 members worldwide, SABER hosts an annual meeting that connects biology educators and researchers to share findings, collaborate, and advance evidence-based teaching practices.

For more information about SABER and the NSF-funded project, visit saberbio.org/2026-2yr-FLC. 

The application will open in December. Click here to join the mailing list and be alerted when applications open. 

Contact: Emily Grunspan, Managing Director, SABER
Email: emily@saberbio.org

After careful consideration, we’re eager to announce that the 2026 SABER Annual Meeting will be held on July 9-12, 2026 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan!

After exploring potential sites, Michigan State emerged as the best fit for our needs, offering affordable options, a mix of on-campus and nearby hotel lodging, and the facilities to host our program. We’re excited to welcome the SABER community to this campus and look forward to connecting with new and returning attendees next summer.

We’re also excited to introduce a new virtual-only day as part of our 2026 conference program, scheduled for June (date forthcoming) ahead of the in-person meeting. This dedicated online event is designed to generate excitement, foster early engagement, and provide an opportunity for remote participants to connect with the SABER community.

Please note that the in-person conference in July will be held exclusively on-site and will not be offered in a hybrid format.

Stay tuned for more details and mark your calendars now! Details will be posted on the Annual Meeting website in the coming months. 

If you’re interested in hosting a future SABER Annual Meeting, learn more at saberbio.org/Prospective-Meeting-Hosts.

Please contact conference@saberbio.org with any questions.

We look forward to seeing you in our new location in 2026! 

The Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a scientific community whose members develop theory and generate evidence with the goal of improving post-secondary biology education, reaffirms its mission, goals and values. As a private organization, we remain steadfast in supporting our members in designing, planning and performing research that advances and improves biology education.

We acknowledge that current and planned cuts in federal funding have affected and will affect many of our members, their scholarship and livelihoods, and the outsized impact that their work has on best practices and policies in biology education at a national and international level. Rigorous and robust STEM education is needed now more than ever, as students in the US rank behind many developed countries in math and science. We also acknowledge that diverse views and perspectives strengthen the quality of the research that drives innovation in education in the US and globally, and this is reflected in SABER’s institutional goals, which have not and will not change.

SABER will continue to support its members and their scholarly pursuits by providing professional development, avenues to disseminate research results, and sessions that address current and future challenges and opportunities. We acknowledge that the current funding situation is fluid and changing, and we will adapt as needed while maintaining open communication with our membership. In the next few weeks, active SABER members will receive a survey where they can report any current or expected impacts due to funding cuts. This will allow SABER’s leadership to best determine how to support our members. 

We encourage our members to support one another and to reach out to the SABER Executive Committee with any issues, concerns, questions, or thoughts.

Several committees are seeking new members for the upcoming year. Please reach out to the chair for more information or to join.

Abstract Committee Seeking a postdoc member Duties: Assists committee in preparing abstract rubrics and crafting the call for abstracts. May assist in recruiting abstract reviewers and training in abstract writing.  Terms of Service: Up to 3 years Desired experience or interests: Eligible abstract committee members must have 1) submitted and presented as poster or talk at least one abstract at SABER Annual Meeting AND 2) reviewed SABER abstracts at least once prior to service. Contact Lisa McDonnell lmcdonnell@ucsd.edu or Claire Meaders cmeaders@ucsd.edu to join.  Annual Conference Committee Seeking a co-chair Duties: The Annual Conference Co-chair leads annual conference planning with the Managing Director (co-chair) and support from the past chair, who retains a position on the committee. The co-chair must plan to attend the annual conference (July 10-13, 2025). The Annual Conference Committee Chair receives the following compensation: a stipend plus travel/hotel and conference registration for the annual conference.  Please contact past chair Jaime Sabel  sabel.12@osu.edu with questions about this committee role. If interested in joining, contact Emily Grunspan at emily@saberbio.org.   Awards Committee Seeking members Duties:  Assists in preparing rubrics and awarding the Bill Wood Award, poster awards, and travel awards. Work primarily takes place in the winter and spring months and leading up to the Annual Conference.  Contact co-chairs Liz Barnes Liz.Barnes@mtsu.edu and Amy Kulesza kulesza.5@osu.edu to join.  Diversity & Inclusion Committee Congratulations to newly elected co-chair, Nicole Scheuermann, who will begin her two year term. This committee is always welcoming new members. If you would like to be added to the DEI committee listserv please email Ariel Chasen achasen@utexas.edu. The group meets every 2 weeks on Friday afternoons.

SABER Committees

SABER is pleased to announce a mentoring group opportunity offered through the PEER (Persons Excluded due to Ethnicity or Race) SABER committee. The SABER PEER Network is a space where individuals who identify as PEER educators and their allies come together to support one another and drive meaningful change. One such support initiative is the PEER Mentorship Program, whose goal is to connect small groups of mentors and mentees who support one another in the various facets of being an academic (e.g., life work balance, grant writing, navigating politics of academia, the job market, teaching approaches). Although we encourage PEERs and their allies to participate, the program is open to all SABER members. 

Please read on to learn more about this exciting mentoring opportunity.

This is the time of year when school has started and so a good time to think about building a community to help navigate and support the challenges that come with the academic year (and beyond). I am emailing you in my role as the coordinator for the PEER mentorship groups/communities to seek new members (both mentors and mentees) to join a group. While in the past I have sometimes put out a call at other times of the year, going forward the intention is to focus on a single call for participants that ties in with the start of the academic year. 

The PEER committee mentorship group invites you to join a small group of fellow biology educators who want to get together as a small group/community on a regular basis during the 2024-25 academic year. Please complete this form if you want to join a new mentorship group for Fall 2024. The information gathered here will be used to help assign you to a mentorship group. We aim to keep the groups on the smaller side (up to 5 members) and will do our best to match you up with others with similar interests and diverse career stages. We also know that interests shift over time and that in many cases mentorship will end up encompassing a broader range of topics than what you may be initially interested in. We also recognize that regardless of where you are in your academic journey, that you will have things to share as both a mentee and mentor in your mentorship community so you just have to pick interest areas rather than identify yourself as a mentor or mentee. When welcomes instructions are shared with members - I will invite one of the more senior individuals to act as the group lead to organize scheduling of meetings, etc. Please sign-up prior to Friday October 25, 2024. We will form the groups after that date and follow-up with community members by early November. 

Click Here to Sign Up

We would also like to hear from those of you who are in a mentor group already (or were in a group in the past year and no longer are) to check-in to see how things are going and learn more about why you left (if you left). You can complete that survey HERE prior to October 25th too please.

Thanks!

Anne McIntosh (she/her, amcintos@ualberta.ca) 

PEER mentorship community group coordinator

Congratulations to Cristie Donham, the winner of the first-ever SABER Photo Contest!

Cristie had this story to share: 

Since SABER 2020, this exceptional buddy group of graduate students and postdocs has found more than just a get to know you vibe, they found true friendship. These six individuals all bring different strengths to the group, from organization to kindness, everyone brings their best self. It's a rare thing that a group meant for 'short-term getting to know you' really sparks something beyond topical chit chat. We go to each others defenses and help with providing feedback for each other's research. We send job ads and encourage each other in all aspects of life, not just work. We're excited to see the next chapters in each buddy's life as we move on from the grad student and postdoc roles each of us had when we first met!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a photo and voted! 

Don't forget to take photos at the Annual Meeting and Regional Meetings, because there may be another photo contest in the future. Stay tuned!

In this photo: Ashley Heim, Cristine Donham, Jacob Woodbury, Ryan Dunk, Stephanie Halmo, and Haider Ali Bhatti

SABER is celebrating National Undergraduate Research Week from April 15 to 19 to recognize the contributions of undergraduates within biology education research. And we want you to be part of it!

Throughout the week, we will highlight undergraduate researchers and research with significant undergraduate contributions from our members.

Here's how you can get involved:

• Share research articles from your lab with us. Don't forget to include any social media handles of your undergraduate researchers (with their permission) so we can feature them on our social media channels and the SABER website. Email content to webcommittee@saberbio.org.
• Tag @SABERcommunity in your social media posts related to your undergraduate research. We may even repost your content to amplify its reach!

Thank you for joining us in celebrating the extraordinary undergraduate research within our SABER community! We can't wait to showcase your achievements during this special week!