Dr. Wendy Keenleyside

Wendy Keenleyside has been a Course Instructor/Coordinator & Faculty Advisor for the microbiology programs and the biotechnology minor since 2000. She has been teaching in the microbiology program at UofG since the mid-90s and has been dedicated to improving student's learning, learning skills and course experiences, since those early days.

As faculty advisor she helps coop students develop their scientific communication skills and guides the MICR, MICR:C and BIOT students as they navigate their degree requirements, and plan for post-graduate education or careers.

Dr. Keenleyside is a member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM; http://www.asm.org//), the Canadian Society of Microbiologists (CSM; http://www.csm-scm.org) and a founding member and past steward of the Ontario Consortium of Undergraduate Biology Educators (oCUBE; www.ocube.ca).

Prior to joining the teaching staff in MCB, she was a research associate in the old Dept. of Microbiology, researching bacterial cell surface polysaccharides using a combination of physiological, genetic and biochemical approaches. She began her teaching career as a sessional lecturer and discovered that despite her love of basic research, teaching was more immediately rewarding, allowing her to make a more meaningful difference in students just entering the field. Now she uses an evidence-based approach and the scientific method...but in her teaching.

She recharges, when not working, at the Muskoka cottage that's been in her family since the '50s, golfing and riding her motorcycle with her husband, down-hill skiing, practicing yoga and training her German Shepherd.