User:Agle95/Kimberly Tanner/Peer Review

Kimberly Tanner

Dr. Kimberly Tanner (she/her/hers) is an American biologist who is biologist, currently serving as the director of the "Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory" (SEPAL)[1], a Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in San Francisco, CA, and co-leads the "Scientist Spotlight Initiative"[2] alongside Professor Jeff Schinske of Foothill College in Los Altos, California. Her primary research focuses on biology and science education research where she emphasizes developing novel assessment tools to better understand how people from K-12 to practicing scientists conceptualize science. Tanner also emphasizes equity, diversity and inclusion in her work to improving student outcomes in scientific learning.

Kimberly Tanner, PhD
Alma mater	Rice University, University of California San Francisco, Stanford University
Known for	SEPAL
Scientific career
Fields	Biology Education, Science Education, Cognitive Psychology
Doctoral advisor	Jon Levine, MD, PhD
Website	https://www.sfsusepal.org/about/about-sepal/ https://scientistspotlights.org/

Early Life

Kimberly Tanner was born in Madison, Tennessee alongside her older brother where they were raised by her mother and father. Growing up, she did not have a specific goal in mind when it came to deciding a career however she was focused on pursuing higher education as she and her brother were the first ones in their family to go to college. Tanner also knew that she could see herself pursuing different careers as she was determined to achieve success in any career that she wanted. She wanted to work hard and make her parents and family members proud for going to college and prioritizing her education. Tanner did not consider herself the first scientist in her family as both her parents were X-ray technicians.

Education

Undergraduate education

Tanner received her bachelor's degree in biochemistry at Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1991 [3]. When she began her undergraduate studies, she initially majored in Philosophy and Religious studies; however, her career interests changed as she attended undergraduate classes. She wanted to gain more experience in the sciences and actively sought out summer internship opportunities, more specifically at a university closer to home and chose Vanderbilt University. This opportunity solidified her motivation to pursue independent scientific research.

Graduation education

After the completion of her bachelor's degree, Tanner received her PhD in Neuroscience at University of California, San Francisco in 1997 [4]. Tanner was under the advisement of Dr. Jon Levine where his lab studied pain and analgesia in the context of placebo studies. Tanner's doctoral work used an interdisciplinary approach of molecular, biochemical, behavioral and electrophysiological techniques to evaluate mechanisms that underly pain and analgesia in mouse models.

More specifically, her dissertation focused on the structure and function of vincristine-induced neuropathy in mouse models. In her dissertation, Tanner discusses that changes in cytoskeleton could be linked with nociceptor responsiveness in production of neuropathic pain. This response could provide insight into how we experience neuropathic pain and the mechanisms involved in different etiologies.

Career and Research

Post-doctoral appointment

During Kimberly Tanner's time in her PhD, her alongside her colleagues did a lot of outreach by teaching science and biology to different K-12 schools around the San Francisco Bay Area. She started to realize that during her time in graduate school, the way professors were teaching scientific research were discouraging. Coming into graduate school as a first generation student from a working class family, there was not a lot of people she could relate to in these academic spaces. This prompted her to pursue a career in science education. More specifically, she got a fellowship position as an National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology Education (PFSMETE) jointly offered at Stanford University and University of California, San Francisco. While doing her post-doctoral work, she shifted from conducting research on rodents and transitioned to working with humans, specifically students K-12 and college level. She still continued working in K-12 schools around the San Francisco Bay Area where she was able to hone in her interests within science education. Tanner was able to learn about the tools needed to ensure that students were learning biology in a way that best suited their own learning and providing educators with the resources to do so.

After finishing up her post-doctoral work, Tanner got a position as an Academic Coordinator in the Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP) at the University of California, San Francisco in 1999. The SEP program focuses on improving the ways educators teach science in San Francisco public schools. SEP also organizes events such as the Bay Area Science Festival where the community within the Bay Area can explore the wonders of science and how its applied into the world around us.

San Francisco State University

While at SEP, Tanner received multiple offers for tenure track faculty positions at many different institutions. During her search on the finding an institution to conduct research in, she wanted to find an institution where she could still work with K-12 public schools but also wanted to shift her focus on undergraduate education for students wanting to pursue careers in science. Tanner chose San Francisco State University because its location and study body was where she felt that she could make impactful change. She was offered and accepted an Assistant Professor role in the Department of Biology at SFSU in 2004 where she found and the Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory (SEPAL)[5]. The purpose of creating SEPAL was to integrate science education efforts in the SFSU Department of Biology and College of Science and Engineering (CoSE).

Kimberly Tanner teaches numerous courses at the university, both undergraduate and graduate courses that focus on introductory biology concepts and providing resources for graduate research assistants to improve active learning for biology in their own classrooms. The undergraduate courses she and her SEPAL team teach are BIOL 644: LEADS - Learners Engaged in Advocating Diversity in Science, BIOL 654: PALS - Peer Assistants for Learning Science, BIOL 230: Introductory Biology for Majors, Part 1, and BIOL 130: Biology for Today's World. All of these courses provide an introduction of biological concepts as well as providing students with the resources and mindfulness of understanding the importance of equity and diversity in scientific teaching. The graduate courses Tanner and SEPAL offer are BIO/SCI 750: Science Teaching for Scientists I and BIO 860: Advances in Biology Education Research which focus on supporting SFSU lecturers and graduate student TAs in their scientific teaching at different levels.

She is also the Principal investigator of SEPAL, where she supervises a team of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers conducting research on the importance of diversifying ways to teach science and how we can make it more inclusive to match the diverse minds of students. Tanner and her team have published many papers on the importance of their work. For instance, one paper discussing metacognition and its emphasis on the how students learn biology and most importantly how students are able to think like biologists . What Tanner and her team conducts research on is helping both students and educators while noting that faculty need to promote this change towards transforming undergraduate biology education.

Along with her work with SEPAL, Dr. Tanner has a few affiliated projects such as the Decibel Analysis Research in Teaching (DART) which is a software tool that analyzes classroom sound to infer about Single voice, multiple voice and no voice activities within a classroom to promote active learning. Another affiliated project in SEPAL is the Scientist Spotlight Initiative as an educational tool for other programs and classrooms to engage students in science content as well as promoting diversity and inclusion in academic spaces. Lastly, Tanner's third affiliated program is Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) that provides links and articles for science faculty to implement in their classrooms to help with transforming science education.

Recognition, Awards and Honors

Dr. Kimberly Tanner has been invited to numerous universities around the country where she has given guest lectures focusing on her efforts to evolve the way we are approaching scientific learning and thinking in K-12 and undergraduate level learning. In 2021, she become the Program Director for the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE). DUE's mission is the promote excellence in undergraduate studies and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for all students. Tanner is also a founding member of the Editorial Board and current Co-Editor-in Chief for CBE: Life Sciences Education (LSE).

Tanner has received the 2012 National Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher Award from the Society for College Science Teachers[6], the 2017 Bruce Alberts Science Education Award for Excellence in Teaching from the American Society of Cell Biology, the 2018 SFSU Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2018 UCSF Audacious Alumni Award.

Selected Publications

1. Tanner, K., Allen, D., Shortlidge, E. E., Hubbard, J. K., Bissonnette, S. A., Aikens, M. L., Miller, S., Grabel, L., Tanner, K. D., Ma, Z., Harris, M. A., Robertson, A. L., & Phillips, A. R. (2017, October 13). Approaches to biology teaching and learning: Learning styles and the problem of instructional selection-engaging all students in science courses. Cell Biology Education. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.04-07-0050
2. Tanner, K., Allen, D., Shortlidge, E. E., Hubbard, J. K., Bissonnette, S. A., Aikens, M. L., Miller, S., Grabel, L., Tanner, K. D., Ma, Z., Harris, M. A., Robertson, A. L., & Phillips, A. R. (2017, October 13). Approaches to biology teaching and learning: Learning styles and the problem of instructional selection-engaging all students in science courses. Cell Biology Education. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.04-07-0050
3. Brownell, Sara E., and Kimberly D. Tanner. "Barriers to faculty pedagogical change: Lack of training, time, incentives, and… tensions with professional identity?." CBE—Life Sciences Education 11.4 (2012): 339-346.
4. Tanner, Kimberly D. "Structure matters: twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity." CBE—Life Sciences Education 12.3 (2013): 322-331.
5. Trujillo, Gloriana, and Kimberly D. Tanner. "Considering the role of affect in learning: Monitoring students' self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and science identity." CBE—Life Sciences Education 13.1 (2014): 6-15.