Poffenroth, Mary H
Lecturer, Biological Sciences
Preferred: mary.poffenroth@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-4831
Twitter https://twitter.com/MaryPoffenroth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marypoffenroth/
Web: https://www.marypoffenroth.com/
BIO:
Mary, a biopsychologist and first-generation college student, began her career in the astrobiology unit at NASA Ames Moffett Field while assisting on payload experiments for STS-107. Mary holds a doctorate in psychology and three master's degrees (biology, psychology, and science communication), is the author of Write Present Create: Science Communication for Undergraduates, and has taught nearly 20,000 students both in person and online since 2007 at San Jose State University in the courses: Biology 10, Biology 21, Biology 54, GLST 1B, UNVS 96, and GLST 167. A Salzburg Global Fellow, Mary has spoken at TEDx London, Harvard, and SXSW, and her work has been featured in such legacy media outlets as TIME magazine, Forbes, Science, Entrepreneur, and National Geographic. Her current research interests lie at the intersection of fear science and innovation.
Education
Ph.D., Psychology Fielding Graduate University
Research Focus: Using media to mitigate non-clinical fear in historically underserved
students in the online classroom.
M.A., Psychology Fielding Graduate University
Research Focus: Media Psychology, using Augmented Reality to mitigate non-clinical
fear
MSc, Science Communication with Merit Honors Imperial College London
Research Focus: Fear appeals, persuasion, fear science, climate change communication
M.S., Biological Sciences San Jose State University
Research Focus: Organismal Ecology of Mammals
Bio
Biology & Global Studies Faculty 2007 - Present
● Designed and implemented 5 inaugural, lower division general education courses in the online environment since 2008 with original digital content (Bio 10-The Living World, Bio 21- Human Biology, Bio 54 -Human Understanding, UNVS 96GB - Global Citizenship, GLST 1B - Global Studies in the Life Sciences).
● Selected by CSU Chancellor’s Office for the CourseMatch Program (Biology 10).
● Achieved official Quality Matters Certification of Online Education Excellence (Biology
10)
● Created an outdoor volunteer program in 2009 with roughly 5,000 students contributing
nearly 20,000 work hours to local, environmental non-profit organizations to date.
● Specializing in large (100 student) to mega lecture (400 student) science courses;
in person, hybrid, and fully digital.