Nancy Wall is currently serving as Associate Provost (2022-present) and the institution's Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) to the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). She chairs the Instruction Committee and the Assessment Committee and oversees funding for the Senior Experience and the Lawrence University Research Fellows program. She has served as the Associate Dean of Faculty (2006-2010) in addition to other leadership positions as chair of the biology department, director of the neuroscience program, director of the gender studies program, and several terms on the Faculty Governance Committee. Her academic area of expertise is developmental biology with a primary interest in early neural development.
Teaching goals: My goals are: to create a classroom atmosphere where all students feel welcome; to impart and instill in students an enthusiasm for learning; to aid them in assimilating new knowledge and relating it to existing knowledge; to help students develop their ability to formulate and critically assess original, independent thought; and to help students improve their written and oral communication skills.
Research interests: Have you ever wondered, how is it that a fertilized egg, a single cell, becomes a fish or a frog or a mouse? How does something as exquisitely complex as the nervous system reliably develop and function, organism after organism? These are questions that fascinate me and why I study embryonic development, with a particular interest in neural development, using zebrafish embryos as a model system.
Courses taught: Developmental Biology, Topics in Neuroscience, Foundations of Neuroscience, Morphogenesis of the Vertebrates, Introductory Biology, First-Year Studies, Senior Experience, and a lab course for non-majors, Human Reproduction.
In addition to being a member of the Biology department, I also contribute to the Neuroscience and Gender Studies programs and serve on the Pre-Health Advising Committee.
