Kuby Immunology Covid-19 & Digital Update

Sharon Stranford

Sharon Stranford received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Hahnemann University (now Drexel), where she studied multiple sclerosis. She then spent 3 years exploring transplant immunology as a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University, followed by 3 years at the University of California, San Francisco, conducting human HIV/AIDS research. In 2001 she was hired as a Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor at Mount Holyoke College, a small liberal arts college for women in Massachusetts, where she served in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Program in Biochemistry for 12 years. Sharon is now a professor of biology at Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she investigates immunologic markers that influence susceptibility to immune deficiency. She also studies the science of teaching and learning; in particular, initiatives within STEM that foster a sense of inclusion and that welcome firstgeneration college students, like herself. Her teaching repertoire, past and present, includes cell biology, immunology, advanced laboratories in immunology, and seminars in infectious disease, as well as a team-taught course blending ethics and biology, entitled “Controversies in Public Health.”

Judy Owen

Judy Owen holds B.A. and M.A. (Hons) degrees in biochemistry from Cambridge University. She pursued her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania with the late Dr. Norman Klinman and her postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Peter Doherty in viral immunology. In 1981, she was appointed to the faculty of Haverford College, one of the first undergraduate colleges to offer a course in immunology. Judy teaches numerous laboratory and lecture courses in biochemistry and immunology; her teaching awards include the Excellence in Mentoring Award from the American Association of Immunologists. She is currently a participant in Haverford’s First Year Writing Program and has been involved in curriculum development across the college. Judy served as director of the Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center from 2013 to 2017 and currently holds the Elizabeth Ufford Green Professorship in Natural Sciences.

Together, Jenni Punt and Judy Owen developed and ran the first AAI introductory immunology course, which is now offered on an annual basis.

Patricia Jones

Pat Jones graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio with highest honors in biology and obtained her Ph.D. in biology with distinction from Johns Hopkins University. She was a postdoctoral fellow of the Arthritis Foundation for 2 years in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School, followed by 2 years as an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Departments of Genetics and Medicine/Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1978 she was appointed assistant professor of biology at Stanford and is now a full professor and currently holds the Dr. Nancy Chang Professorship in Humanities and Sciences. Pat has received several undergraduate teaching awards, was the founding director of the Ph.D. Program in Immunology, served as vice provost for faculty development and diversity, and in July 2011, she assumed the position of Director of Stanford Immunology, a position that coordinates immunology training activities across the university.

Jenni Punt

Jenni Punt received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College, magna cum laude, with high honors in biology from Haverford College. She was a combined degree student at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating summa cum laude from the School of Veterinary Medicine (V.M.D.) with a Ph.D. in immunology. She pursued her interest in T-cell development as a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Physician-Scientist fellow with Dr. Alfred Singer at the National Institutes of Health and was appointed to the faculty of Haverford College in 1996. After 18 wonderful years there, working on T-cell and hematopoietic stem cell development, she accepted a position as associate dean for student research at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. There she was the founding director of an M.D./M.Sc. dual degree program and co-ran a laboratory on hematopoiesis with her husband, Dr. Stephen Emerson. After being tempted back to the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, she is now developing new educational programs as director of One Health Research Education. She has received multiple teaching awards over the course of her career and continues to find that students are her most inspirational colleagues.