Officers
Meet the AWIS-ND Officers 2022-2023:
Dr. Rebecca Wingert, Faculty Advisor since 2012
Email: rwingert@nd.edu

Dr. Rebecca Ann Wingert is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Gallagher Family Professor of Stem Cell Research at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Wingert received dual undergraduate degrees in Biology and English from Muhlenberg College in 1999, and subsequently earned her Ph.D. in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University in 2005. She worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Instructor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School until 2010, where she accrued further training in Genetics and Stem Cell Biology. Dr. Wingert came to Notre Dame in 2010 to start her independent research laboratory, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Stem Cell Biology, Stem Cell Aging, Development and Organ Regeneration.
At Notre Dame, the Wingert laboratory studies the mechanisms that direct kidney formation. They perform basic research to elucidate how nephrons, the functional unit of the kidney, are made during development and regenerate after injury using the zebrafish, Danio rerio. The long-term goals are to discover new biomedical interventions that can be used to treat or prevent kidney disease. To support these endeavors, Dr. Wingert received a Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award from the March of Dimes in 2011, which recognizes promising young investigators pursuing research that aims to understand and treat developmental defects in children. Research in the Wingert lab is also supported by several multi-year grants from the National Institutes of Health, including the Director’s New Innovator Award (2011-2016) to study the mechanisms of kidney regeneration, and a Research Project (R01) Award (2013-2018) to identify genetic models of kidney birth defects using zebrafish.
Rachel Cronin, President
Email: rcronin1@nd.edu
Liz Arsenault, Vice President
Email: earsenau@nd.edu
Taylor Sherman, Treasurer
Email: tsherma4@nd.edu
Caitlin Kerr, Secretary
Email: ckerr3@nd.edu
Amandhi Mathews, Outreach Chair
Email: omathews@nd.edu
Arpitha Mysore Rajashekara, Professional Development Chair
Email: amysorer@nd.edu
Zoe Emory, Social Chair
Email: zemory@nd.edu
Mika Schievelbein, STEMentorship Chair
Email: mschieve@nd.edu
Alyssa La Bella, Social Media Chair
Email: alabella@nd.edu
Departmental Representatives
- ACMS - Emma Cobian
- Chemistry - Kangling Ma
- Engineering - Alicia Wei & Caitlin Coverstone
- Postdoctoral - Hanna Hlushko & Senjuti Banerjee