Assistant Education Specialist

• Campus Phone: 612-625-5645
• E-mail: pete6647@umn.edu
• Office: University Office Plaza Suite 400, Room 403

Education

• B.S. University of Wisconsin, Zoology
• Ph.D. Vanderbilt University, Pharmacology

My background is in biomedical research, and I am interested in science pedagogy, the scientific process, and training students to think as scientists. At the Center for Teaching and Learning, I am involved in the Preparing Future Faculty program and serve on the editorial board of Transform, a newsletter devoted to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). I have presented a workshop on conference presentation skills in the Department of Pharmacology and participated in a pedagogy workshop for visiting Danish educators. I also served as the Twin Cities coordinator for the Bush Grant “Promoting Student Learning in Large Classes.”

I recently moved to the Twin Cities from Nashville, Tennessee where I was involved in biomedical research and science outreach at Vanderbilt University. Currently I am involved in community science outreach in the Twin Cities area where I teach classes related to biological and health science issues to older adult audiences. In addition to my teaching, I also design curriculum for Active Minds, an adult education provider located in Denver, Colorado.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Petersen, C. I., Stepanovic, S. Z., Grim, T. R., Kupershmidt, S. and Balser, J. R. The UNC-103 potassium channel may be a downstream effector of EGL-30 signaling. International C. elegans Meeting, Los Angeles, CA (2005).

Petersen, C. I., McFarland, T. R., Stepanovic, S. Z., Reiner, D. J., Yang, P., George, A. L., Roden, D. M., Thomas, J. H., and Balser, J. R. In vivo identification of genes that modify ether-a-go-go-related gene activity in Caenorhabditis elegans may also affect human cardiac arrhythmia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 11773-11778 (2004).

Petersen, C. I., Potet, F., Grim, T. R., Yang, P., Hayashi, K., Roden, D. M., Thomas, J. H. and Balser, J. R. A C. elegans RNAi screen identifies proteins that may contribute to human cardiac arrhythmia. West Coast C. elegans Meeting, Santa Barbara, CA (2004).

Petersen, C. I., Stepanovic, S. Z., Williams, C. M., Murray, K. T. and Balser, J. R. Redox modulation of ion channels. American Heart Association Meeting, Anaheim, CA (2001).

Petersen, C. I. and DeFelice, L. J. Ionic interactions in the Drosophila serotonin transporter identify it as a serotonin channel. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 605-610 (1999).