Jennifer Normanly has served as the Head of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst since 2011 and has been involved in STEM education for 22 years.
Her research is in plant metabolic engineering and has included over 34 undergraduates. She was the lead PI on an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates site focusing on plant biology and has been the lead instructor for the Techniques in Plant Biology summer course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. Having participated in an NSF-funded STEM undergraduate curriculum reform project early in her teaching career, she has taught broadly in the undergraduate curriculum, revamping numerous courses to foster student-active learning and has been an early adopter of instructional technology in the classroom. As a department head she has facilitated the efforts of junior faculty to incorporate evidence-based teaching practices into their teaching portfolios.