Joann Otto, a Western Washington University professor of biology and the chair of the university’s biology department, has been named one of the Vision and Change Leadership Fellows by the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education program.

Otto was selected by an expert panel from more than 250 highly competitive applicants to be a part of this study. The yearlong program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health, will allow the 40 Leadership Fellows to recommend models for improving undergraduate life-sciences education.

“Team members were chosen based on their previous accomplishments in undergraduate education in biology and for the quality of the institution they represent,” Otto said, in a press release. “My selection as a member of the PULSE Leadership Team reflects highly upon Western and my department.”

Otto has taught at WWU since 2004 and received her doctorate in cell and developmental biology from the University of California, Irvine, in 1976.

For more information, contact Otto at joann.otto@wwu.edu, or visit http://www.pulsecommunity.org/ to learn more about PULSE.