Ashley Turner
She/Her
I am queer and a lesbian and I am a geneticist and biology education researcher.//
I am an Assistant Professor of Biology at Jacksonville State University, located in the Appalachian foothills of northeast Alabama. I lead a team of student researchers in The Worm Hole, a research lab utilizing the microscopic roundworm _C. elegans_ as a model system for exploring gene function and evolution and molecular mechanisms of disease. Our current research interests involve the interplay between genetics, metabolism, aging, and neurodegeneration.
Through my teaching endeavors, I offer unique research and learning opportunities to students through course-based undergraduate/graduate research experiences (CUREs and CGREs). As a teacher-scholar, I investigate the structure and impact of these course-based research experiences and use this research to better understand how biology students think, engage, learn, and benefit and how I and other instructors can develop more effective ways to teach in these unique learning environments.
In my spare time, I can be found chilling out in the backyard or hiking on the Pink E. Burns Trailhead off the Pinhoti with my wife Jo and our two chiweenies and spending time with my mom and family.