One of the original faculty members at 十大菠菜台子威廉博蒙特医学院 – Judith Venuti, Ph.D. -已退休.

Venuti, 最近被任命为牛津大学商学院兼职教授, is currently relocated to what she affectionately calls her “happy place” on Cape Cod for the current quarantine restrictions. 她希望退休后能在这里度过一半的时间.

Venuti said her time at OUWB was the culmination of a career filled with highlights that began as a marine biology instructor and a research fellow in a world-renowned lab in Massachusetts.

“When OUWB offered me an opportunity to focus on teaching and provided me a different perspective on scholarly work, 我欣然接受了这个机会,她说。. 

Venuti于2011年加入OUWB, 2012年, 她被任命为生物医学科学系主任, 基础医学研究系的前身.

She oversaw the Embryology curriculum for the M1-M2 students and was co-director of the Reproductive Systems course. She also was chair of the 课程 Committee and the 教师 Awards Committee and served as a member of the M1/M2 课程 Subcommittee.

加入OUWB之前, Venuti was an associate professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy at Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York. 

Venuti is a Fellow of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) and serves as AAA Annual Meeting Program co-chair, 并担任AAA董事会和AAA教育推广委员会的成员. 2019年，维纳斯获得了AAA级评级.J. 拉德曼模范服务奖, 这是对解剖科学领域杰出成员的最高荣誉.

Venuti has taught in the Anatomical Sciences for nearly 20 years and has received several ‘Excellence in Teaching’ awards. 她的教学经验包括:临床解剖学, 人类产前解剖学(胚胎学), 发育生物学, 细胞和分子生物学及相关健康人体解剖学(作为课程主任).

当维努蒂展望退休时，她反思了自己的职业生涯.

你的职业生涯中有哪些亮点?为什么?

我职业生涯的高潮包括当学生, teaching assistant and instructor in the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Embryology Course in Woods Hole, 他是麻省理工学院的研究员. The MBL is world renown and attracts researchers and students in many disciplines including embryology, 细胞和分子生物学和神经科学.

它提供了一个与这些领域的科学领袖建立联系的绝佳机会. 在伍兹霍尔的夏天, I danced with a Nobel Prize winner who identified cyclins and shared a laboratory one summer with another who discovered proteasomes. 在MBL的时候，我仍然有很多朋友和同事.

Another highlight was while I was a postdoctoral fellow at the MD Anderson Cancer Center where I worked on gene regulation during development when the field had just begun.

我认为我在OUWB的时光也是一个亮点. 这是我工作过的最好的地方之一. OUWB对其基础科学教员的支持与大多数医学院非常不同, 它让我茁壮成长.

你为什么选择在对外开放大学工作并担任系主任的角色?

对我来说，在OUWB工作的机会来得正是时候. I was in New Orleans at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine (LSU) and Hurricane Katrina basically decimated my research program and scattered my students and staff. 从卡特里娜飓风中恢复过来的时候, I spent time as a program director in developmental biology at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C.但要重新启动却很困难. 我回到路易斯安那州立大学，在那里我把更多的时间花在教学上而不是研究上.

When OUWB offered me an opportunity to focus on teaching and provided me a different perspective on scholarly work, 我欣然接受了这个机会. 也, it was an opportunity to be involved in the development and delivery of a different type of medical curriculum and to provide input on the development of programs and policies on the ground floor as it were. 我是首批聘用的10名左右教员之一, but I didn’t come to OUWB planning to become chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences (in 2018 the department was renamed Foundational 医疗 Studies), 在这里待了几个月后，我就有点适应了这个角色.

你最喜欢教学的哪一部分?

I find it very rewarding to have students understand a difficult concept because I was able to provide a clearer explanation or demonstration. I like making models and developing instructional tools that provide a different perspective and offer alternatives to lectures and texts.

For example, I have created a module for every embryology session I delivered in the M1/M2 years. I have also crocheted structures to create models of embryological processes and adult anatomy that are more flexible than the standard plastic models. Together with the medical illustrators and undergraduate students from OU’s Cinema Studies Program, I have created ~ 20 embryological animations that illustrate morphological changes over time for different organ systems because I could not find clear examples elsewhere. I am hoping to finish these “Embryology in 3 Minutes or Less” animations soon and post on OUWB’s YouTube channel.

你对你的同事和/或医科学生有什么建议? 

永远不要停止学习. 尽你所能发挥创造力. 只要有可能，尽量帮助别人.

当你不知道的时候不要害怕承认, 但总是愿意调查并试图找到问题的答案.

你去过许多独特的地方. 你的旅行对你个人和/或工作有什么影响?

I have visited approximately 25 or so different countries and been to most of the states in the U.S. I think my travels have helped me appreciate diversity and different cultures as well as nurtured an appreciation and fed my life-long love of nature, 特别是海洋生物学. 我的许多旅行都是为了远足、潜水或浮潜.

由于冠状病毒大流行，你的危地马拉之行被推迟了.  你打算去那里做什么? 

 这是开始研究项目的一部分, 我和博蒙特的一位儿科医生一起去了危地马拉高地的一家免费诊所, Dr. 杰伊·伊士曼(Jay Eastman)博士是牛津大学商学院2019届毕业生. 阿曼达·林恩·马歇尔. 我现在是Casa Colibrí诊所的董事会成员和董事会秘书. 因为COVID-19, we have had to postpone the various programs the clinic offers including their annual “Jornada,"妇女健康倡议, 眼部任务, 还有一个促进该地区儿童健康的项目.

告诉我们科德角和你的退休计划有什么关系?

出于几个原因，我决定在科德角的伍兹霍尔附近找一家养老院.  我在波士顿长大，在马萨诸塞州还有朋友和家人. I have friends from graduate school and my first faculty position at Columbia University nearby in other New England states. All six New England states can fit into the state of Michigan, and I like to take road trips.

I plan to continue to spend part of the year in Michigan - hopefully helping to teach anatomy to OUWB medical students. I had hoped to take part in the many lectures and educational opportunities that the MBL offers the Woods Hole community, 不幸的是，今年没有发生这种情况, 也许明年吧.  我以前的一个学生在这里有一个实验室, 我希望在MBL重新开放后能和她联系.

在科德角隔离期间有什么活动让你忙得不可开交?

I hike every day and try to get in several miles each day or at least 10,000 steps on my pedometer. I am fortunate to be within walking distance of several beaches and beachcombing is my “happy place.“我收集海玻璃和贝壳，并用它们来制作工艺品. 常去的地方是彭赞斯角, 这是一个从伍兹霍尔伸出的半岛，拥有宏伟的家园和美丽的野生动物. 这是一个封闭的社区，所以只有居民才能开车去那里.