Dr. Erin Lehmer gives Biology majors one-on-one opportunities typically reserved for graduate students
Why does Dr. Erin Lehmer think students are drawn to Fort Lewis? “I think our students want to feel like they’re individuals,” she muses. “They’re interested in a student-centered educational experience—one where the professors know their names and care about them outside the classroom.” If that sounds like a pretty on-target answer, perhaps that’s because it is the very reason Dr. Lehmer herself chose Fort Lewis for her own undergraduate education. Dr. Lehmer started out at the University of Utah, but did a semester exchange program at Fort Lewis her freshman year and found that she enjoyed the smaller classes, the town of Durango and the personal feel of Fort Lewis. She decided to stay. Though as a high school and early college student, Dr. Lehmer was set on becoming a veterinarian, she quickly realized that her love for animals was much deeper. “It struck me that mostly dealing with sick animals might not be for me,” she recalls. “At Fort Lewis I started doing animal research, and that’s really what motivated me to pursue a career where I could still work with animals, but by studying their physiological and ecological attributes. I was lucky to have some fantastic teachers here who inspired me to go in that direction.” After graduating with a degree in Biology in 1997, Dr. Lehmer went to Colorado State University to receive her master’s and Ph.D. in Zoology. She chose the school for its strong animal ecology and physiology program and abundant Fort Collins-based resources, including the National Wildlife Research Center, the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital and U.S. Geological Survey’s Mid-Continent Ecological Research Center. Afterward, she completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship to study infectious disease in wildlife at the University of Utah, and then was awarded a one-year post-doctoral training fellowship in microbial pathogenesis from the National Institute of Health. Her research was titled “Dynamics of Sin Nombre Virus in a Natural Host System.” Though she loves research, Dr. Lehmer decided then to center her career on teaching. During her job search, Fort Lewis came immediately to mind. “The experience I had at Fort Lewis as an undergraduate exposed me to professors in a way that made me discover what a great job they had!” says Dr. Lehmer. “I knew I’d always do research, but I wanted the opportunity to work at a college where teaching was the focus.” That’s not to say that Fort Lewis doesn’t issue its share of high-quality published works, Dr. Lehmer adds. “Research here is highly encouraged, but it’s tailored in a way that teaches students about the research process,” she says. According to Dr. Lehmer, one of the lesser-known strengths of the Fort Lewis Biology program is the fact that they continue to stay ahead of the curve, especially for a small college. “Today, institutions are moving away from the traditional divisions in biology departments: evolutionary versus cellular and molecular,” Dr. Lehmer says. “That’s exactly what we’ve been doing. While we’re very strong in all of those sub-disciplines, we have people in our department who cross those lines. So, students have the opportunity to learn how molecular biology and ecology are becoming blended, or how you can study physiology in wild animals. We’re showing them what is possible with modern biological techniques.” Just as Dr. Lehmer came to Fort Lewis for the accessibility to her professors, today, she fills that role for her students. “Here, biology students get the rigorous coursework they’d have at a larger institution, but they also get those one-on-one opportunities typically reserved for graduate students,” she says. What kind of opportunities? In the summer of 2008, Dr. Lehmer had seven students working with her in Hesperus, just west of Durango, where they spent 10 weeks studying animals with the Sin Nombre Hantavirus. “Our undergraduates were trapping animals, collecting samples and running them in the lab,” says Dr. Lehmer. “If these students were working as research assistants at a larger school, they might be cleaning traps and washing dishes.” The project was sponsored by a National Science Foundation grant, which required Dr. Lehmer’s team to work with a research institution. They were paired with a team from the University of Utah, where Dr. Lehmer had done her post-doctoral work. Beginning in the summer of 2009, Dr. Lehmer will teach a brand new class she proposed and designed for the Education for Global Citizenship program at Fort Lewis—Emerging Infectious Diseases. “I’m excited because for the first time, I’ll be addressing infectious diseases from different angles, not just from my biological perspective,” she says. “With the EGC program, we’re teaching our students to be global citizens. I’m happy to be a part of it.” As her students will likely attest, even after teaching a concept time and time again, Dr. Lehmer still finds her subject fascinating. “I love showing students why something is interesting, and watching their interest grow,” she says. “What I teach is so complex, that it’s fun for me to get a business or an English major excited about biology and physiology.” But for Dr. Lehmer, it isn’t all about her love for science. She has a lot of admiration for the people looking back at her from those desks. “I have straight-A students who are also amazing athletes. I have some students who are dedicated volunteers,” she says. “We have this incredible group of people attending Fort Lewis who have so many things going for them. I’m glad I can get to know them personally at this stage of their lives. I hope that I have some small impact.” |
