B.S Biological Science - University of Georgia

Ph.D. Biology - Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry - Georgia State University

IRACDA Postdoctoral Fellow/T32 Cardiology Fellow/AHA Postdoctoral Fellow - Emory University

Dr. Peterson always loved science, especially biology, and was determined to become a Veterinarian until she experienced an undergrad identity life crisis during her junior year. She considered becoming a medical examiner, and any other medical related position under the sun, until she started listening to the quiet voice reminding her that she actually enjoyed lab. To determine if lab work was her "thing", she applied to and was accepted to Georgia State University's Biology graduate program, with a focus on Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry. She joined the lab of Dr. Parjit Kaur and learned that molecular lab work, especially generating mutations and investigating their impact on functionality was her "thing" while biochemically characterizing an ABCF protein involved in flavivirus resistance. The idea of teaching, initially terrified Dr. Peterson and she may have become quite ill before the first course she instructed in grad school.....but she found teaching fun, and enjoyed mentoring undergrad and grad students during grad school. Still not exactly sure what she wanted to do, she pursued a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Jinhu Wang at Emory University, investigating the role of the immune system on zebrafish heart regeneration. While this was incredibly cool, her favorite component of her postdoc work derived from her teaching and mentoring undergraduate student experiences. This led to Dr. Peterson pursuing an Assistant Professor position at Mercer University, where she can teach and mentor undergraduate students and return to her biochemical/molecular roots, the world of microbiology, and use her favorite research organism, the friendly E. coli, to investigate the function of antimicrobial resistance gene products.