The Academic Minute for 2022.02.28-2022.03.04

The Academic Minute from 02.28 – 03.04

Monday, February 28th
Theresa Floyd – University of Montana
Retaining Employees by Fostering Social Connections
Theresa Floyd earned her Ph.D. from Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky in 2014. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Syracuse University. Theresa’s research interests encompass two main streams, both of which incorporate social network theory and analysis.

The first stream, in the realm of business management, focuses on social cognition, social influence, and the effects of organizational change on organizational identification and attachment. The second stream, in the realm of natural resource governance, focuses on how psychological processes operate within the social networks of resource stakeholders to influence attitudes and outcomes.

Tuesday, March 1st
Tobin Miller Shearer – University of Montana
The Value of De-Coupling Race and Crisis in White Communities
Tobin Miller Shearer is a History Professor and the director of the African-American Studies Program at the University of Montana. His most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Regina Shands Stoltzfus, is Been in the Struggle: Pursuing an Anti-racist Spirituality (Herald Press: 2021).

Wednesday, March 2nd
Bryan Cochran – University of Montana
The Health and Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Communities
Bryan Cochran, Ph.D., is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Montana in Missoula. He received his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he developed a research program in LGBTIQ+ health. He is currently a licensed psychologist in the State of Montana who has published over 40 research articles relevant to LGBTIQ+ people and their experiences.

Thursday, March 3rd
Jakki Mohr – University of Montana
Harnessing the Power of Biomimicry for Transformative Innovation
Dr. Jakki Mohr is the Regents Professor of Marketing and the Poe Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the University of Montana. Her research focuses on challenges companies face in both commercializing and adopting new innovations. Her recent research is situated at the intersection of the natural world and business.  For example, she studies the innovations in the field of ecological restoration (restoring degraded landscapes), how companies use biomimicry (innovations inspired by nature, based on underlying biological mechanisms) to solve technical and engineering challenges, and business valuations of impacts and dependencies on nature.

Friday, March 4th
Erica Woodahl – University of Montana
Advancing Equity in Pharmacogenomics
Erica L. Woodahl, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Skaggs Institute for Health Innovation at the University of Montana. Erica Woodahl received a B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Washington. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical pharmacokinetics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Woodahl research focuses on precision medicine and pharmacogenomics to identify sources of interindividual variability in disease treatment and prevention (e.g. genes, environment, and lifestyle). Translation of pharmacogenomics into clinical practice requires genetic research with diverse patient populations to accurately predict drug response and toxicity for all people regardless of geographic location, ethnicity, or age. Towards this end, we focus on precision medicine and pharmacogenomics with rural, American Indian and Alaska Native, and pediatric populations.