![Headshot photo of Teresa Reyes](https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2023/10/n21206622/jcr:content/image.img.cq5dam.thumbnail.500.500.jpg/1698678873486.jpg)
Teresa Reyes named senior associate dean at the College of Medicine
Researcher to help continue to grow basic and translational research in new role
Teresa Reyes, PhD, has been named senior associate dean for basic and translational research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Reyes currently is a professor in the college’s Department of Pharmacology and Systems Physiology.
Reyes joins with Brett Kissela, MD, executive vice dean and senior associate dean for clinical research, to co-lead the college’s Office of Research and provide strategic oversight for its research agenda, which at the close of FY2023 included more than $140 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored research holdings.
“The senior associate dean for basic and translational research is an extremely important leadership position in the College of Medicine. With her extensive research and programmatic leadership experience, her success in obtaining NIH and foundation funding and her commitment to mentoring students and trainees, I believe Dr. Reyes will thrive in this position taking the college’s research program to the next level by building on the many successes of her predecessor, Melanie Cushion, PhD,” said Andrew T. Filak Jr., MD, senior vice president for health affairs and Christian R. Holmes Professor and Dean of the College of Medicine.
Reyes joined the College of Medicine faculty in 2015, coming to Cincinnati from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Prior to that, she was on faculty at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida. She received her doctorate in psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.
“I am continually impressed by the innovative and creative research of my colleagues, and I am extremely enthusiastic about the opportunity to support and grow the basic science mission of the College of Medicine,” Reyes said. “I look forward to building on the important work that Dr. Melanie Cushion has done these past years.”
Cushion stepped down earlier this year after serving as senior associate dean for research since Sept. 1, 2013. Cushion continues to serve on the college’s faculty as professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases.
Teresa Reyes, PhD Photo/Joseph Fuqua.
Reyes said that research is strong at the college and she sees much she hopes to build upon. She plans to work closely with the UC Foundation to think creatively about philanthropy and how it can support research growth in building new programs.
Reyes said she appreciates the needs and challenges of postdoctoral fellows and research staff, plans to work to retain current faculty and recruit new faculty to the college and looks forward to partnering with other associate deans and the department chairs to address research-related challenges and opportunities within the college.
Reyes also looks forward to supporting the 573 graduate students in 15 doctoral and 11 master’s programs. Additionally, she expects to look for ways to build infrastructure to support the research mission, find creative ways to bring researchers from different areas together and continue the research recognition efforts that the college has had for the last several years.
“I would like my colleagues to know that I am aware of the challenges that scientists face from funding to publishing to hiring because I deal with these challenges myself. I look forward to collaborating closely with them to find ways to help them do what they do best, and that’s science. That will be a priority for me,” Reyes said.
Reyes has been an active researcher during her eight years at UC and will continue her research program located on the Reading Campus. Her lab is focused on how early life environment shapes brain development and cognition, with a focus on understanding neuron-glial interactions. Her work examines a range of environmental influences, including nutrition as well as exposure to inflammation, drugs of abuse and chemotherapeutic medications.
Reyes also has led National Institutes of Health-funded projects that provide training for underrepresented and disadvantaged students to prepare them for graduate biomedical programs at UC. She is a co-principal investigator for the RISE UP Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience Program, which is funded by an R25 award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. She also is the co-principal investigator of PREP@UC, a postbaccalaureate training program in biomedical sciences that is funded by an R25 award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
“It is the people who make the college’s research endeavor successful and there is an extraordinary depth here in the PIs, the trainees and the research staff," she said. "I look forward to learning from them and working together to advance basic and translational research at the University of Cincinnati.”
Featured photo at top of Teresa Reyes, PhD. Photo/Joseph Fuqua.
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