Dr. Donna Pattison serves as Associate Dean for Curriculum, Instruction, and

Career Development in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) at the University of Houston (UH). Dr. Pattison specializes in curriculum development and academic policies that impact degree completion. She works extensively in the area of faculty development, encouraging the use of high impact, high engagement teaching practices. Dr. Pattison also oversaw the launch of a new career center in NSM to educate students on career pathways and professionalism while also connecting them to internship and employment opportunities. She continues to work closely with the new career center to foster growth in both programming and corporate engagement. Dr. Pattison is an Instructional Professor in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry. Her primary research interest is in the development of student success programs to improve undergraduate retention and graduation rates. She leads the CRISPR in the Classroom network, training college laboratory instructors in the molecular basics of CRISPR-Cas 9 systems and its biotechnology applications in DNA editing so that the new methods can be integrated into the undergraduate curriculum. Dr. Pattison has been the recipient of a UH Teaching Excellence Award (2012), Group Teaching Excellence Award (2017), Provost’s Core Teaching Award (2019), and the Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award (2024). She was also a recipient of the Houston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award (2024).