Research Specialist II
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Rhiannon is a research specialist at the Laboratory of Cognitive Neurobiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, primarily studying accumulation of myelin defects in dense white matter tracts. In addition to her research career, Rhiannon has taught anatomy and related courses at several institutions in the greater Boston area since 2015. Teaching is her "first love" professionally and works to improve as an educator a little more with every passing semester. She is a champion for ethical human anatomy donor care and advocates enthusiastically for the best possible treatment of the donors with whom she works to her own students, to the institutions at which she works, and to her fellow anatomists. She is a co-author on Leeper et al (2023) "Honoring human body donors: Five core themes to consider regarding ethical treatment and memorialization" and has a number of manuscripts related to this work in progress through the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society's Anatomical Donor Stewardship committee.
She has been a nontraditional student through her entire post-secondary educational career. She graduated with an Associate's degree as a Surgical Technologist at Renton Technical College in 2009, her Bachelor's degree in Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston in 2015, and returned again to complete her Master's degree in Anatomy & Neurobiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 2022. She will begin her PhD also in Anatomy & Neurobiology beginning Fall 2024.
