Teaching has always been a passion for Dr. Shana Stoddard, who is being commended for that passion through the 2023 Council on Undergraduate Research’s Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award.
“They look at how you have interacted with undergraduates in the lab, how you have mentored them, where they go, what kind of accomplishments have they had, and basically your mentoring philosophy,” said Stoddard, associate professor of chemistry at Rhodes College. “All of those things, coupled together, are essentially how I ended up getting selected with this honor to be able to earn that award.”
Dr. Shana Stoddard
“I knew that I wanted an undergraduate research lab,” Stoddard said. “That was something that I realized was really important to me, to have an army of undergraduate students in the lab. I knew I wanted to be in a space where both teaching was valued but also research was valued.”
A biochemist by training, Stoddard said she does research under the umbrella of molecular interactions and recognition. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Mississippi, an M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on special education from Freed-Hardeman University, and a B.S. in chemistry from Prairie View A&M University.
Stoddard is the founding director of Rhodes' STEM Cohort Mentoring Program, a demonstration of her dedication to mentoring and teaching.
At Rhodes, she said she enjoys bringing together lab instruction and lectures. She said it allows students to better understand the significance of what they’re learning.
