Undergraduate Neuroscience Pedagogy: Perspectives From Different Institutions

Gary L. Dunbar is the John G. Kulhavi Professor of Neuroscience, the E. Malcolm Field Endowed Chair, and the director of the neuroscience program at Central Michigan University. He also serves as the executive director of Field Neurosciences Institute. He is a former president of SfN’s Michigan chapter, the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, and the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair and senior editor of the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education. His teaching and research interests are primarily in the area of behavioral neuroscience. Dunbar earned his BA in psychology and BS in biopsychology from Eckerd College, MA in psychology and MS in biology from Central Michigan University, and PhD in biopsychology from Clark University.

Karen Parfitt is a professor of neuroscience at Pomona College where she established a neuroscience department and a neurophysiology research and teaching lab. Her students investigate questions related to molecular mechanisms of synaptic transmission, often in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. She previously served as a president of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience. She has taught courses for majors and non-majors in neurobiology, neuropharmacology, and introductory cell biology. Parfitt earned her BS from Cornell University and her PhD from University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Laura Symonds is an associate professor of neuroscience and the director of undergraduate neuroscience program at Michigan State University. She previously served as an assistant professor at University of California, San Diego. Symonds earned her BS from Vanderbilt University, PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed postdoctoral fellowships in developmental neuroscience at Princeton University and Oxford University. She also completed a Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.

Julio J. Ramirez, PhD, is the R. Stuart Dickson Professor and director of the neuroscience program at Davidson College. Ramriez earned his bachelor's degree in psychology from Fairfield University and later obtained his PhD in psychology from Clark University. After teaching at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University, Rameriez completed his postdoctorate in neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ramirez's research interests include the recovery of function after central nervous system injury, with an emphasis on determining the functional significance of hippocampal neuroplasticity. At the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), Ramirez was co-director of the Neuroscience Scholars Program from 2012 to 2021 and served as a counselor and treasurer of SfN from 2015 to 2023. He is currently the chair of SfN’s Neuroscience Training Committee.