Dr. Vicki Isola’s main teaching responsibilities are Loading... – Introduction to Cell Biology and Loading... – Microbiology for the Allied Health Professions, which are pre-requisite courses for nursing students. She has also taught introductory biology, general microbiology and immunology for biology majors.

Vicki is very interested in biology education with the twin goals of increasing understanding of scientific concepts in non-science (pre-health) majors and increasing the retention of underrepresented students interested in the health sciences, who often see their pre-requisite science classes as a barrier to their ability to pursue a career in the health professions. To this end, she has been modifying her courses over the past seven years to include more ways for the students to actively engage with each other as well as the course content, and she has developed a learning assistant program for Biology 103 that is designed to provide academic support outside of the classroom. She has also been working with Dr. Maria Burnatowska-Hledin and Hope students to develop monoclonal antibodies to VCAM-1.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., immunology, University of Pennsylvania, 1988
• B.S., biology, Michigan Technological University, 1981

HONORS, GRANTS & AWARDS

• National Academies Education Fellow in the Life Sciences, 2015–2016
• Hope College PURE Grant, Hope College, 2009 – $1,000
• Hope College Faculty Development Grant, Hope College, 1991 – $1,500.00
• PEW Midstates Science and Mathematics Consortium Faculty Development Grant, 1990 – $7,404.50
• American Society for Microbiology Predoctoral Minority Fellowship, 1986–1987
• NIH Predoctoral Traineeship, University of Pennsylvania, 1982–1986
• MTU Scholar Award, Michigan Technological University, 1981
• Precollege Student, Jackson Laboratory, 1977

Published Work

• “Cholera in Marine Plankton” and “Swine flu,” Encyclopedia of Genetics: Revised Edition, Salem Press, 2003
• “Sexually transmitted diseases,” “Leprosy,” “Tetanus,” “Elephantiasis” and “Herpesviruses,” Magill’s Survey of Science: Medicine, Salem Press, 1995
• “Winner in Immunology,” Mac Gill’s Survey of Science: Nobel Prize Winners, Salem Press, 1996
• “Metabolism of 2-Aminofluiorene by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes: More evidence for the association between inflammation and cancer,” with T.C. Hartman, S.J. Trumble, M.C. Ruzek and J.M. Gentile, Environmental Health Perspectives 101.3, 1993
• “Investigation into the mechanism of activation of 2-aminofluorene by human leukocytes,” with T.C. Hartman and J.M. Gentile, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, 17.19, 1991
• “Activation of 2-aminofluorene into a Salmonella mutagen by human leukocytes,” with S.J. Trumble, M. Ruzek, and J.M. Gentile, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis 15, 1990
• “Fine Mapping of antigenic site II of herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D,” with R.J. Eisenberg, G.R. Siebert, C.J.Heilman, W.C. Wilcox and G.H. Cohen, Journal of Virology, 63, 1989
• “Antigenic structure of herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D,” doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1998
• “Antigenic analysis of a major neutralization site of herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D, using deletion mutants and monoclonal antibody-resistant mutants,” with M.I. Muggeridge, R.A. Byrn, T.J. Tucker, A.C. Minson, J.C. Glorioso, G. H. Cohen and R.J. Eisenberg, Journal of Virology 62, 1988
• “Localization of discontiuous epitopes of herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D: Use of a non-denaturing (‘native’-gel) system of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis coupled with Western blotting,” with G.H. Cohen, V.J. Isola, J. Kuhns, P.W. Berman and R.J. Eisenberg, Journal of Virology 60, 1986

Outside the College

Vicki and her husband have four children and four grandchildren. Their daughter, Julie, is currently pursuing a degree in biology secondary education at Hope. Vicki enjoys reading, writing, camping, hiking, skiing, geocaching and spending time with her family.

She and her husband have been coaching the L.E. White Middle School and Allegan High School Science Olympiad teams for the past eight years. She believes the Science Olympiad program is a tremendous way to inspire students at a young age to pursue a career in the sciences and is interested in helping local teachers start a Science Olympiad team at their school.

Vicki completed the first draft of her debut young adult fiction novel with the assistance of the NaNoWriMo challenge, her Kalamazoo writing group friends and the Hope College Faculty Writing Camp. This is a work-in-progress that she hopes to publish some day in the future.