Jennifer Robichaud Teaching Professor

Academic Interests:

The primary goal to my teaching is to provide a quality education for my students at the University of Notre Dame. Therefore, I continually reevaluate and enhance my teaching approaches so as to enrich the student’s learning experience in a meaningful way. Projects in the introductory lab have introduced students to original research from Dr. Patricia Champion to examine ESX-1 secretion pathways in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Dr. Jason McLachlan to examine how global environmental change has affected marsh plants such as Schoenoplectus americanus. In the upper division physiology and parasitology lectures, students are challenged to synthesize material from multiple sources to develop an understanding for the whole system whether it be the human body or how the human body is affected by another organism. In and out of class, multimedia sources are used to help reinforce the information that has been discussed during lecture. Public and global health is another important topic introduced into the parasitology to provide students a better understanding of how social, cultural, environmental, and economic factors influence infections and health and vice versa.

Along with my teaching during the academic year, I engage with high school students in the PreCollege Summer Scholars program. This two-week Global Health course introduces them to the major global health challenges in under-resourced settings both within the United States and in developing countries. In class, we hold discussions on the determinants of health and the social factors that also determine health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, maternal-child health, and the importance of WASH, to name a few topics. By the end of the course students should have an understanding that global health is truly interdisciplinary in nature.

Biography:

• Director of Undergraduate Studies, Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame 2021-Present
• Associate Teaching Professor/Professional Specialist, University of Notre Dame 2016-Present
• Assistant Teaching Professor/Professional Specialist, University of Notre Dame 2010-2016
• Visiting Assistant Professional Specialist, University of Notre Dame, Department of Biological Sciences 2008-2010
• Research and Diagnostic Parasitologist, Purdue University, Department of Comparative Pathobiology, West Lafayette, IN 2000-2006
• Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Engineering (ORISE) Fellowship, Joint appointment with Emory University School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tuberculosis Branch, Atlanta, GA 1998-1999
• Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Training Fellowship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tuberculosis Branch, Atlanta, GA 1997-1998
• Master of Science, University of Georgia, Department of Medical Microbiology, Athens, GA 1997
• Bachelor of Arts, Clinical Laboratory Science, College of Saint Scholastica, Duluth, MN 1995

Selected Professional Activities:

• IACUC member since 2011
• College Council, 2019
• University Council for Academic Technologies, 2020
• Undergraduate Honors Committee, Chair 
• Events Committee, Chair
• Pre-Veterinary Club Advisor
• American Medical Women’s Association Club Advisor 
• Timmy Global Health Notre Dame Chapter Club Advisor
• Archery Club Advisor
• American Society of Clinical Pathologist certification 1995