Biography

 Dr. Spears serves as the Assistant Dean of Student Success at the St. Joseph Campus and has joined the team to promote academic achievement and a student-centered learning environment. Dr. Spears is a career health sciences educator and patient advocate for Northwest Missouri, where she has lived for the last decade. She attended the University of Missouri–Columbia where she completed a Doctorate in Neurobiology, specializing in stem cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative disease. She then collaborated with University Hospital in Columbia’s neurosurgery and pathology departments as a neuro-oncology post-doctoral associate before joining the faculty at Northwest Missouri State University in 2012. During her time at NWMSU, she served as a physiology professor, an academic advisor, an EMS instructor, and coordinator of the Biology Graduate Program. Dr. Spears is dedicated to student achievement, advocating for student resources, and building excellent medical professionals to serve rural communities. Dr. Spears is a licensed EMT and an executive staff member of the Nodaway County Mass Casualty Response Squad, where she continues to provide care and training to Northwest Missouri first responders. Dr. Spears cares intently for the wellbeing of her students, her patients, and her community; she intends to leverage her years in medical research, basic science education, rural community dynamics, and clinical correlations to make the St. Joseph Campus the premiere site for creating exceptional Rural Medicine physicians.