Brenda Peters, PhD

I arrived at St. Ambrose University in the Fall of 1993 as a newly minted Ph.D. in Physiology with very little previous experience in teaching or life. It took years before I stopped getting told that I couldn’t park in the faculty/staff lot or that my professor must not have ordered that textbook. Unfortunately, people no longer mistake me for a student after 31 years of teaching.

During my time at St. Ambrose University, I have had the opportunity to teach non-majors and major biology courses, freshman New Student Seminar courses and many sections of Human Anatomy and Physiology courses. Every semester, I meet new students who are eager to learn, interested in new challenges, and have the desire to grow and change. I have observed amazing transformations of intimidated first year students into confident seniors ready to take on a new career! I believe I have taught thousands of students over the years, and luckily, I continue to run into them in all sorts of situations in my daily life.

Not only was I able to quickly jump into teaching a full slate of courses at St. Ambrose University, but I also became involved in committee service very early in my career. I had the privilege to have served on the Academic Support Committee, Faculty Development Committee, Advisory Board for the Center for Teaching Excellence, Board of Studies, and multiple search committees, appointed committees, and task forces. Additionally, I was proud to represent the faculty as Chair-Elect and Chair of the Faculty Assembly from 2010-2012. One of my proudest achievements was chairing a task force of dedicated faculty who explored the possibility of starting an honors program at St. Ambrose University. Instead of instituting a typical honors program, the faculty task force worked to create a program founded in the liberal arts with enough flexibility to be attractive to our students interested in pursuing careers in professional programs. I had the opportunity to serve as co-director of the honors program from 2012-2015 during which I was able to welcome three new first year classes into the program.

As much as I enjoyed working with groups of students in the classroom, I also appreciate the opportunity to work one on one with students in the laboratory setting. I have supervised multiple student-driven research projects over the years. Several of those students had the opportunity to present their research projects at conferences, such as the Iowa Academy of Sciences. I have been continually interested in pedagogy and have co-authored several journal articles focusing on student-driven experimentation within the general biology course.  

When our students become doctors, dentists, veterinarians, biology teachers, physical therapists, and nurses and use the knowledge acquired from their biology classes at St. Ambrose University, I hope they recognize how much they have gained from their experiences and are proud of their journey and accomplishments.