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Metadata
- Subject
Biology
- Date submitted
19 July 2022
- Keywords
- Additional information
Author Biography:
Alex Olvido is a quantitative biologist who revels in finding meaningful patterns in large and complex data sets. Receiving undergraduate research honors upon graduating from the University of California at Irvine, Alex left “The Golden State” to pursue dissertation studies at the University of South Carolina at Columbia with guidance from the driven (but still affable) evolutionary ecologist, Timothy Mousseau. Several hard-won accolades (including an NSF Postdoctoral Research fellowship) allowed Alex to pursue quantitative behavioral genetics research at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln with the behavioral ecologist, William Wagner, Jr. (and card-carrying MENSA member) and, later, at Morehouse College with Lawrence Blumer, who among other things introduced Alex to the data-rich world of educational psychology and practitioner research. But as valuable as supervised postdoctoral experiences may be, nothing truly steels a scientist’s resolve to improve American higher education than working full-time in a college classroom. After brief teaching appointments at Virginia State University (Petersburg, VA) and Longwood University (Farmville, VA), Alex joined the faculty of Gainesville State College (GSC) in 2008. The rest—including the well-publicized consolidation of GSC and North Georgia College & State University in 2012—is history. Currently, Alex (happily tenured) teaches introductory biology courses to science majors and non-majors, guides undergraduate research projects, and serves on various school committees and grant review panels (most recently in March of 2017 for the Ford Foundation Fellowship program). As part of his self-imposed training in writing pedagogy (including interpretation of writing rubrics), Alex also participates in Educational Testing Service’s Advanced Placement (AP) Biology readings just about every June in Kansas City, Missouri. Beyond the workplace, Alex volunteers with Oconee County Mentoring Program, keeps his backyard hens clucking, and occasionally picks/strums a guitar. (Sleeping and bathing are entirely optional—hah!)