Biography

Dr. Rodriquez serves as the Assistant Teaching Professor of Anatomy and Histology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Saint Joseph Campus. She has joined the team to mentor students in their courses, with a special emphasis on providing on-site anatomy, histology, and dissection labs, as well as small group activities, anatomy lectures, and to provide anatomy-based outreach programs to high schoolers and incoming medical students. Dr. Rodriquez attended the University of North Dakota (UND) where she earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Anatomy and Cell Biology. Her dissertation involved investigating transcriptomic and epigenetic links associated with increased susceptibility to persistent depressive and anxiety-like disorders in neonate mice exposed to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) during a critical window of neurodevelopment. Her research paralleled and expounded upon published findings indicating that humans exposed to SSRIs during their third trimester of development are at increased risk for depression diagnoses by the age of 15.  Dr. Rodriquez is experienced working with DNA, RNA, proteins, cell cultures, the serotonin and dopamine transporters, and with maintaining a mouse colony and performing rodent behavioral testing and dissections. In addition, while attending UND she mentored students in research laboratory techniques, taught and managed undergraduate human cadaver-based labs and led cadaver dissection teams. During the summer of 2021, she taught a dissection-based anatomy lab course to Doctor of Occupational Therapy Students at Casper College in Wyoming, while also training two faculty members to teach and run the course for future semesters. Dr. Rodriquez is passionate about supporting student success, providing excellence in education, and helping her students become the best Rural Medicine Physicians they can.