Leah Anderson Roesch earned her PhD from Emory’s Neuroscience program in 2007.  Dr. Roesch’s graduate work on the molecular basis of neurodegnerative disease lead her to a collaboration with her dissertation advisor Allan Levey and his colleagues in Reykjavik, Iceland.  Her work focused on characterizing candidate genes originally idetified in the Icelandic poulation that may be linked to Parkinson’s disease susceptibility.  In addition to her research interests in the molecular basis of neurodegnerative disease, Dr. Roesch is driven to improve science education and literacy.  She uses student-centered, active-learning teaching methods and supports students in inquiry-based exploration of the topics.  Her current position as director of the SIRE program for undergraduate research allows her to work with students doing research in all fields – from vocal pedagogy, to women in politics, to theater set design to molecular basis of neurodegerative disease! Courses Dr. Roesch teaches include first-year seminars such as ‘Mismeasure Woman, Mismeasure Man’ with Dr. Marsteller and ‘From Botox to Behavior’ with Dr. Frenzel as well as a special topics class, NBB370: ‘The Path to Discovery: AD and PD.’