Kathleen Tallman, PhD

Kathleen Tallman graduated with a doctorate from the neuroscience program at the Ohio State University where her research focused on the role of neuropeptides in cerebellar circuits. She has taught anatomy, physiology, and neurobiology to undergraduates at several institutions including twelve years in the Department of Biology and Chemistry here at Azusa Pacific University (APU). Her research interests focus on the impact of neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, and inflammation, on the blood-brain or blood-spinal cord barrier. She has received numerous grants from the Faculty Research Council at APU and has mentored many undergraduate students in research and in presentations at regional, national, and international conferences. Dr. Tallman has a passion for increasing science, technology, engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) literacy and awareness of STEM careers to K-12 students. She has partnered with several schools in the Azusa Unified School District with service learning and other STEM experiences. She received two California Space Grant Consortium grants to support this work and presented it at the National Science Teacher’s Association STEM Forum in 2016. She is a fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA). She has spoken at several regional and national conferences for the ASA, and published in Christianity Today, on the topic of anatomy and faith integration. She has also served as one of several faculty facilitators for an online professional development course, “Integration of Old and New Testament Scripture into the Teaching of the Health Sciences”, developed through collaboration by several Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) institutions. In 2016 she received the Distinguished Research Faculty Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at APU, and in 2017 she received the faculty Uncommon Citizen Award from APU.