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Miriam Segura, PRESIDENT
University of North Georiga
mstotten@ung.edu
Dr. Miriam Segura is a biology professor and the Harry B. Forester Eminent Scholars Chair in Biological Sciences at the University of North Georgia (UNG). She has an A.B. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. During her seventeen-year teaching career, Dr. Segura has engaged undergraduates in research within a traditional setting, in courses that integrate her scholarly interests, and as part of national initiatives to infuse research into the curriculum. Show more...
Most recently, her research interests focus on innovative and evidence-based teaching, particularly on methods that promote critical thinking in undergraduates. Dr. Segura's teaching was recognized in 2016 through UNG's most prestigious honor, the Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2017 through the University System of Georgia Regents' Teaching Excellence Award (Felton Jenkins, Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award). In 2017, she was honored to be named one of the Inspiring Leaders in STEM by INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine. She has been the Themed Issue senior editor for the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education since 2017. Within SABER, Dr. Segura is invested in continuing to make the society an inclusive and welcoming environment to all. To this end, she helped to create the PEER (Persons Excluded because of their Ethnicity or Race) Network SABER special interest group in 2020.
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Jamie Jensen, PRESIDENT-ELECT
Brigham Young University
jamie.jensen@byu.edu Dr. Jamie Jensen is a Discipline-based Educational Researcher (DBER) and Professor of Biology at Brigham Young University. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science from Brigham Young University in 1999, a Master’s Degree in Biology, with an emphasis in Developmental Biology and Molecular Evolution, from Brigham Young University in 2003, and a Doctoral Degree in Biology, with an emphasis in Science Education, from Arizona State University in 2008. From 2008 to 2010, she ran educational research and taught at Chandler-Gilbert Community College where she had been teaching adjunct since 2005. She joined the faculty as a DBER in the Biology Department at Brigham Young University in 2010. Show more...
Her research foci include (1) the reconciliation of science and religion amongst religious students, (2) the creation of faculty development programs effective at teaching evidence-based instructional practices to STEM faculty, and (3) the development and assessment of undergraduate biology curricula that employ evidenced-based pedagogical strategies to increase student scientific reasoning skills and deep conceptual understanding. She teaches both majors and non-majors biology as well as advanced pedagogy classes as part of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Program at Brigham Young University. She is also a member of the Broader Social Impacts Committee for the Human Origins Initiative at the Smithsonian where she joins other religious scientists in helping the American public feel more comfortable with evolution. She has been attending SABER since 2013.
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Kelsey Metzger, PAST PRESIDENT
University of Minnesota, Rochester
kmetzger@r.umn.edu
I've been an active member of SABER for the past 11 years, participating in all but one national meeting and recently presenting at my first SABER West. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of you in my previous roles in the organization on the Steering Committee (2017-2019), co-chairing the inaugural Election Committee (2019), on the Mentoring Committee (2020), chairing the Tenure and Promotion SIG (2018-2022), as the unofficial SABER swag czar, and currently as a member of the Development and Growth Committee (2021-2022). Show more...
SABER feels like home to me: I have met friends, collaborators, role models, and friendly critics because of SABER, all of whom have been invaluable to me as a DBER scholar committed to seeking and using data to inform practice. My current academic position involves research focused on undergraduate learning; teaching; and service. As a faculty member at a small "startup" campus focused on education innovation that is part of a larger multi-campus university, I have been engaged in an extensive range of service activities across nearly every facet of the institution. Through serving on committees, task forces, and elected positions within university governance, I have cultivated the ability to work effectively alongside colleagues representing diverse stakeholder interests and campus units. These experiences have enabled me to learn a lot about how different groups function and what strategies generally work well to get things done. Over the past several years, I have taken on additional mentoring and faculty development roles, and will begin a new role as Director of Faculty Development at UMR as an extension of my tenured faculty position.
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Sheela Vemu, SECRETARY
Waubonsee Community College
svemu@waubonsee.edu
My current academic position as a two-year faculty member in a Hispanic-serving institution with a high % of First generation college-bound students presents unique challenges and opportunities. My involvement with the Community College Anatomy and Physiology Educational Research (CAPER) project and serving as Guest Editor for the special issue of CBE-Life Sciences Education (LSE) on Community College Biology Education Research has been invaluable. These roles have provided me with invaluable insights into how we can change our perspectives and policies to transform the two-year ecosystem into a more inclusive and equitable space. I've had the opportunity to participate in five national SABER meetings held in Minneapolis actively. In 2022, I presented a poster on Evidence of an Effective Study Strategy Intervention in a Community College Biology course, which was subsequently published. I was inspired to discuss pedagogical transformation using BER on a Two-Year Section panel at the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT). In 2023, I co-led a SABER Special Interest Group (SIG) for Community Colleges, which led to becoming part of the organizing committee to lead the first Regional Midwest SABER at St Louis. Show more...
I am excited to contribute to SABER's collective leadership and make it more representative and inclusive for scholars from community colleges, minority-serving institutions, and other underrepresented institutions. SABER can increase its membership and influence other disciplinary organizations to form collaborations that will help disseminate BER findings to classroom practitioners. My role as a monitoring editor for LSE has allowed me to see the relationship between innovative scholarly work and its application and understanding in an educational context. I envision SABER as a leading force in promoting inclusive and evidence-based teaching practices, and I am committed to working towards this vision in my elected office.
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Melinda Owens, TREASURER
University of California, San Diego
mtowens@ucsd.edu
Melinda T. Owens has been a tenure-track Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of California, San Diego since 2018. Prior to that, she earned a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco and was a postdoc at San Francisco State University in biology education research. Her research focuses, broadly, on developing tools to help faculty understand their teaching and use evidence-based teaching techniques, including active learning and inclusive teaching. Show more...
She also mentors undergraduates and masters' students in biology education research. Melinda has been attending SABER conferences since her postdoc. Recently, in the wake of George Floyd's murder, she co-led SABER's "Sense of Place" committee to determine where and how we can have the annual SABER meeting to best honor and involve local educational communities of color. As treasurer, she is committed to investigating and implementing ways to lower the cost of participating in SABER activities and broaden SABER's membership to be more inclusive.
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Emily W. Grunspan, EX-OFICIO MEMBER
SABER Managing Director
emilywgrunspan@saberbio.org
Emily Wojcik Grunspan is Managing Director of SABER. Emily has dedicated her career to the nonprofit sector and has worked in education programs at a museum, zoo, and university as an educator, facilitator, and leader. She holds a master's degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Arizona State University.
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Mary Pat Wenderoth, HISTORIAN
University of Washington
mpw@uw.edu
Mary Pat Wenderoth is a Teaching Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Washington, Seattle (UW) where she teaches animal physiology courses and conducts biology education research on how students learn biology. Her main research interests focus on assessing implementation of cognitive science principles in the classroom, particularly those associated with conceptual change, use of first principles in constructing conceptual frameworks in physiology and student metacognition. Show more...
She also does research on academic achievement gaps in STEM and effectiveness of professional development efforts to close those gaps. She received the UW Distinguished Teaching Award in 2001and has served as the co-director of the UW Teaching Academy. She was recognized by the National Association of Biology Teachers as the Biology Education Researcher of 2017. She received the Claude Bernard Distinguished Lectureship of the American Physiology Society Teaching of Physiology Section in 2019. She is co-founder of the UW Biology Education Research Group (UW BERG) and the national Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER). She also served as President of SABER from 2010-2019. She served as a facilitator at the HHMI Summer Institute for Undergraduate Biology Education from 2007-2011. Dr. Wenderoth earned her B.S. in Biology from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., a M.S. in Women's Studies from George Washington University, a M.S. in Exercise Physiology from Purdue University and her Ph.D. in Physiology from Rush University in Chicago. The Historian role has been created to facilitate communication, both between the executive committee and other SABER committees and with our membership more broadly.
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