Dr. Kaitlin Campbell, Associate Professor of Biology. Dr. Campbell’s primary research interests include biodiversity, entomology, community ecology, restoration ecology, agroecology, and community engagement. Her current research examines the role of ants as indicators of restoration success and regulators of biodiversity in above and belowground systems. She is studying mites that use ants for dispersal because allows her to ask questions spanning multiple hierarchical levels including: host, colony, colony neighborhood, patch, and landscape levels. Several ongoing, collaborative projects include: 1) effects of an invasive shrub (Amur honeysuckle) and deer on ant biodiversity, 2) ant diversity and function in crop fields and temperate tree canopies, 3) historical and future shifts in lady beetle communities due to climate change, 4) elevation gradients and ant diversity in Costa Rica, 5) mite communities associated with an invasive ant and termites in North Carolina and Japan, and 6) a citizen science biodiversity and invasive species monitoring project in Daniel Boone National Forest (KY, TN). Dr. Campbell has mentored 20 undergraduate students.
Dr. Lisa Kelly, Professor of Biology, is a terrestrial ecologist with a passion for fieldwork and for mentoring undergraduate researchers in questions involving invasive species, conservation biology, and floristics. She is primarily interested in exploring the trophic ecology of invasive fire ants in natural wetlands, and in using genomics to understand how these ants may alter food webs and belowground processes. As director of the UNCP Herbarium, she provides mentoring opportunities in herbarium management. She has mentored 20 undergraduate students in research, culminating in numerous presentations at local, state, and regional conferences. Her primary teaching responsibilities include Principles of Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Plant Systematics.
Dr. Nicolas Negrin-Pereira, Assistant Professor in Animal Science at the Department of Biology is a veterinarian specialized in cattle reproduction. His research focuses on those factors that affect gonadal growth and development in the beef bull, from the fetal stage until puberty. In particular, he is interested on developing potential treatments and management that can influence the establishment of the final number of Sertoli cells in the testis and the subsequent daily sperm production in the bull. Dr. Negrin-Pereira teaches Introduction to Zoology and Animal Sciences, having mentored both undergraduate and graduate students during his career.
Dr. Maria Pereira, Associate Professor of Biology, is a geneticist with agriculture expertise. She has been at UNCP since 1998 where she has been teaching Principles of Genetics and Biotechnology (with labs) every semester. She has been the director of the Interdepartmental Biotechnology Degree Program since its inception in the Fall 2005. UNCP was the first university in the system to offering a B.S. in Biotechnology. She also teaches Principles of Biology, Development Biology, and Environmental Science. A big portion of her career has been around curriculum development as well as university and community involvement. She created the Biofuels Project that she directed for two years. Three areas composed that project, Outreach, Research and Biodiesel production. She was also involved in the implementation of the Recycling Program at UNCP. She was also a participant in the creation of the new B.S. in Sustainable Agriculture. Dr. Pereira is heavily involved in green systems such as sustainability, energy conservation and biodiesel production. She has been researching combinations of biodiesel production byproducts and plants, and more recently she has been involved in Aquaponics as Sustainable Model. As part of the Biotech program, Dr. Pereira has been involved in facilitating internships for 17 students in the program. She has mentored 9 students in undergraduate research.
Dr. Leila M. Reyes Ruiz, Visiting Faculty of Biology, is a microbiologist with expertise in genetics and biochemistry. She is a SPIRE post-doctoral scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research focuses in understanding the genetic mechanisms that results in phenotypic heterogeneity of the bacterial pathogen Clostridioides difficile. She has taught Developmental Biology and is currently teaching Principles of Biology.
Dr. Amber Rock, Assistant Professor of Biology, is an aquatic ecologist who loves taking students outside to study our local freshwater ecosystems. Her research interests include water quality, food webs, and ecological stoichiometry. She teaches Freshwater Ecosystems and Watershed Management, Field Microbiology, Pollution Ecology, General Botany, and Environmental Science. Dr. Rock mentored 14 students in research projects during her PhD and is excited to begin mentoring students here at UNCP!
Dr. Bryan Sales, Assistant Professor of Biology, is a research horticulturist and agronomist. His research focuses on the use of organic soil amendments to improve the production of horticultural crops. Dr. Sales has investigated the use of sustainable sources of carbon and soil nutrients such as biochar and nitrogen enriched soil amendments for the establishment and production of Northern Highbush Blueberry. He is mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students in agricultural research projects. Dr. Sales teaches several courses in the Biology Department’s Agriculture Track including Techniques in Horticulture, Sustainable Agriculture, Soils and Hydrology, General Botany, and Plant Physiology.
Dr. Rachel Smith, Professor of Chemistry, is a synthetic organic chemist whose research interests include total synthesis of natural products and developing synthetic methods for pharmaceutical synthesis. She teaches Organic Chemistry I and II and General Chemistry I and II. She has mentored more than 20 students in undergraduate research over 18 years of teaching in higher education and served as academic advisor for more than 50 at UNCP. She is the Program Director for the NIH-funded Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) Program at UNCP.
Felicia Scott, MS, is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry with Expertise in General and Organic Chemistry.
Dr. Silvia Smith, Assistant Professor of Biology, is a natural scientist interested in using evolutionary theory to test hypotheses regarding the natural history and causality of human infectious and chronic diseases. Her interest in human disease is broad and began with her doctoral work at the University of Utah where I studied the coevolutionary relationships among humans and the causative pathogens of tuberculosis and leprosy (genus Mycobacterium), accounting for the previously uncharacterized role of genetic recombination in this genus. She continued the work on human infectious diseases as a postdoctoral fellow studying the mechanisms of plasmid-mediated acquisition of drug-resistance in multidrug-resistant human pathogens.
More recently, her research has shifted to characterizing the molecular mechanisms implicated in chronic inflammatory human diseases. During her second postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Ophthalmology Department, she studied the molecular and genetic bases of age-related macular degeneration. She subsequently worked as a Research Scientist at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Division, where she studied the genetic and molecular pathways implicated in interstitial lung disease. Her current work in collaboration with the University of Utah School of Medicine aims to characterize the role of inflammation in interstitial lung disease, depression, and other chronic human disorders.
She have worked with several undergraduate, graduate, and medical students during the last several years, and She is excited to continue working with highly motivated students who have an interest in understanding the mechanisms implicated in human disease. She is also happy to mentor students who have a specific interest or project which falls under the scope of her training.
Dr. Meredith Storms, Associate Professor of Chemistry, is an analytical chemist. She teaches General Chemistry I and II (with the labs), Chemistry for the Health Sciences I and II, analytical chemistry, DNA analysis, and forensic chemistry. She has mentored over 35 undergraduates in research projects related to the analysis of pharmaceuticals in dosage form and biological fluids.
Dr. Cornelia Tirla, Professor of Chemistry, is an organic chemist. Her research focuses in the synthesis of organic molecules with biological activity. The objectives of this project are to identify possible drug candidates. This project is realized in collaboration with the biology department. Dr. Tirla teaches Organic Chemistry I and II, Health Science, Scientific Literature and General Chemistry. She has mentored 18 undergraduate students in research.
Dr. Joseph White, Assistant Professor of Biology, is a plant physiological ecologist and environmental biologist, with research interests that include studying the plant-water relations of riparian tree species in the southeastern US. His current research focus is understanding the water source use patterns of riparian trees in the southeastern US and how changes in environmental variables impact source utilization. Recent research projects have included attempts to determine the water sources of trees growing along characteristic streams of the Southeast, trees growing along differing types of water bodies, and those of trees planted in a restored wetland. Dr. White teaches Principles of Biology and General Botany.