Dr. Joanna Kelley
Associate Professor at Washington State University
“One of my unique attributes is my enthusiasm. I hope that it is kind of contagious, and I have felt this through the conversations where people become excited with the work that I am doing.”
Read Joanna’s full profile below
What do you do every day?
I am a professor at Washington State University. My duties change a lot from day to day. At any given time, I am probably working on at least three different projects. All of the research projects in my lab are around genetics and genomics. I have six graduate students, each of whom is at a different stage in their career, so I spend time discussing projects, career development, and general ideas. A lot of what we do in the laboratory is computational so I'm at the computer. I also teach undergraduate classes at WSU. I teach genome biology as well as contemporary genetics.
Why do you love it?
I love genetics and genomics and science, more generally, because I have the freedom to ask, and try to answer, a lot of different questions. For me doing research is very exciting. I love it because I'm always exploring new ideas and reading new things. I'm often reading journal articles and popular science articles to try and inform my own research on the latest and most cutting-edge research.
What were your moments of fear and challenges in your career?
There had definitely been some challenging moments in my career. I actually started in college as a mathematics major. I have always loved mathematics and I originally thought it was the direction I would take for my career. But when I got to college, I wasn't sure if math was the right career path for me. Deciding to change paths to genetics was a big decision. Those moments thinking what classes to take, what steps to take, what track to take, were definitely a challenge but very exciting.
What are some of the latest innovations in science that you are most excited about?
In 2013, I answered this question and said “The latest innovations that are particularly close to me are, this year they discovered the thousand dollar genome. Which is something that when I started graduate school, a number of years ago, never even existed; it was almost science-fiction. And now we can genetically sequence the human genome with $1000 and that cost the next few years will go down. For me this innovation really open doors for the way that we can look at human genetic data as well as other species. The fact that we can sequence human genome gives us hope to sequence other species at low-cost to really get deep insight into the biological processes. What's really exciting personally is ability to sequence ancient genomes. And that were seen many different articles, there was one earlier last week, about the frequency of different ancient genomes. It's really transforming the way that we think about genetics and DNA. It's amazing! So one of my big projects for the PhD was looking at a specific thing that exists in tooth enamel formation. I spent a lot of time sequencing this gene, spend a lot of time in the lab, now the project can be done in less than a week. This proves how fast of a pace at which were at now. All these ideas are really revolutionizing genomics.”
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Santa Cruz California is. It was wonderful. I went to high school 10 minutes from the beach. It was great; the community in Santa Cruz is incredibly supportive and fun loving. We were always outside, and I think that really added to my love of science, biology, and math. I was constantly playing in the woods and in the dirt; I was constantly exploring.
Who was your favorite teacher and why?
One teacher that really had an influence on me was in high school was the leadership teacher, she taught a leadership class. She really supported my leadership development and my ability to be involved in high school. It doesn't directly relate to science but it was related to my development as a leader, my learning skills, and how to organize people. This definitely put me at an advantage although it seems like a small thing. Also, when I was a graduate student there was a professor who was on my PhD committee. Her influence on my career has been just incredible. She has been incredibly supportive. She made sure that I was aware of and taking advantage of all the opportunities and she helped regarding my research and then pointed me towards people with similar interests. To this day she influences and supports my research. I feel very fortunate to have her as a supporter and a mentor.
Describe an experience where you adapted your approach to resolve a sticky situation.
As a professor it has been very interesting adapting and learning the new ways to run a lab. This is very different than being a part of somebody else's research program. It's become apparent to me that it's like running a small business. You have to learn how to manage money, and manage people, hire people, and train people while at the same time keeping the research going, publishing papers, and serving in departmental and university committees. It's not a specific interest where I need to change my approach but really just learning a whole new skill set for the job. It has been exciting, challenging, and interesting.
What is your unique talent?
One of my unique attributes is my enthusiasm. I am very excited about what I do, and it becomes very clear to anyone who works with me, which has led to a lot of great collaborations and exciting discussions in science. I hope that it is contagious, and I have felt this through the conversations where people become excited with the work that I am doing.
Is there a current book or book you love?
My all-time favorite book is called the Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor. It’s a novel about his parents, and their immigration from Mexico to the US. It is a really beautiful novel about these two families and their challenges with coming across the border. Both of them I believe undocumented and building their lives in the US and how they met, and how their lives become intertwined. I read it in middle school originally, and I’ve re-read it multiple times; I highly recommend it.
What is your favorite website or fun activity?
For work, one of my favorite websites is Twitter. Twitter is a great resource. The scientific community that I am involved in has some pretty active tweeters and their constantly contributing ideas and thoughts and posting about new papers. For me it’s great to follow Twitter and see what is trending on a daily or weekly basis in science.
For fun, prior to living in Pullman, when I lived closer to the water, I raced sailboats. I started racing sailboats when I was a graduate student in Seattle, and I have loved to be on the water racing ever since. Now that I moved to Pullman and there isn’t a big body of water nearby, I spend more time outdoors and playing with my two small children.
Who inspires you?
My biggest inspirations have been my parents. My mother has a PhD in biology and received it when very few women pursued a PhD in science. Both of my parents have been continuously supporting and pushing my siblings and me to accomplish whatever we can and always challenged us to do the best that we possibly could.
