Congratulations to HUGEN’s Beth Roman on winning this year's award honoring faculty who have excelled in the teaching and mentoring of students. Roman was nominated by students and chosen by a committee of students and past Craig awardees.
Here are just a few comments made by students who nominated Roman for the 2019 Craig Award:
- Dr. Roman creates the best possible learning environment by making her classroom open to all questions, comments, and points of discussion. She actively seeks feedback from students in order to continually make improvements to the courses she teaches and is in charge of.
- Dr. Roman is extremely dedicated to her profession and to educating future generations.
- Dr. Roman is a brilliant thinker and educator, and readily engages with students. She’s an asset to our school!
Beth Roman received her BS in biochemistry from The Pennsylvania State University and her PhD in environmental toxicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She then pursued postdoctoral studies in molecular genetics and developmental biology at the National Institutes of Health before accepting her first academic position as an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Roman returned to her hometown of Pittsburgh in 2006 to join the Department of Biological Sciences in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Human Genetics at Pitt Public Health, as well as a member of the Heart, Lung, Blood and Vascular Medicine Institute.
Roman has taught many courses over the years, from undergraduate-level introductory biology to graduate-level genetics to medical school embryology. She continually strives to incorporate the latest advances in science into her classroom teaching and relishes the opportunity to engage, challenge, and learn from the outstanding students at Pitt Public Health.
In addition to classroom teaching, Roman has served as a research mentor for eight postdoctoral students, eight graduate students, and 21 undergraduate students. Her research is aimed at understanding how blood vessels develop in the embryo, with a particular focus on defining the molecular and cellular mechanisms that give rise to vascular malformations in the human genetic disease, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the American Heart Association. She is an editor for the journal Angiogenesis, a founding member of the UPMC/Pitt HHT Center of Excellence, and a member of the North American Medical and Scientific Committee of CureHHT.
Outside of her academic pursuits, Roman has a strong interest in engaging girls and underrepresented minorities in STEM activities with the goal of enhancing their representation in STEM careers. To this end, she serves as a scientist volunteer for girls’ STEM programs run by the Carnegie Science Center of Pittsburgh.
4/22/2019