Hi all,
I’m Mary Ann Smith and I was born and raised (and still live) in Throop, PA, which is just down the street from Penn State Scranton. (I can actually see the campus from my backyard, though it is more than a stone’s throw away.) I am an only child to two wonderful parents, John and Michelle Smith. I grew up around cars, especially antiques, as my family owns a body shop. (Yes, the red truck with sparkles (aka metal flake) is mine.)
Living in Throop, we have lived with environmental pollution my whole life, as a former CERCLA site Marjol Battery is only a few blocks away. Unfortunately, environmental factors influenced my health. In 1998, my kidneys failed and I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease known as Goodpasture’s Syndrome. (It has nothing to do with cows or pastures.) It is a disease that creates an autoantibodies that attach to the collagen strands in the basement membranes of the lungs and kidneys. In my case, it affected the kidneys to the point where they no longer could filter my blood. I was on a treatment called plasmapheresis in order to remove the autoantibodies. Then I received a kidney transplant 9/9/99 from a deceased donor and I am eternally grateful to my donor family for choosing to help others in their time of sadness and sympathy. These experiences have also helped to spark my love of science and later ethics.
From 7th-12th grade, I was a regular participant in Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, thereby furthering my love of science. I have continued as a judge with PJAS since 2004 and I love to help up and coming students. I graduated near the top of my class and was a member of the National Honor Society in high school as well.
Though I live near a Penn State campus, I did not go to Penn State for my college years. I went to the University of Scranton, a Catholic and Jesuit University only a few miles from home. I spent a number of years at the University of Scranton and ended up leaving with four degrees. Yes, 4 degrees. I received a Bachelor in Science in Environmental Science, graduate cum laude in 2007, when I was studying Green Chemistry under Dr. Michael Cann and did some microbiology and acid mine drainage under Dr. Michael Hardisky and Fr. Timothy Cadigan with a research advisor of Dr. Michael Carey. I was the first Environmental Science graduate of the Honors Program as well.
Then I entered into the Masters of Arts in Biochemistry program, which I completed in 2009 (though I walked for graduation in 2010). My work for my thesis project was on the creation of Bioethanol from Waste Fruit Sources. I demonstrated that many waste foods could be used to produce bioethanol and it did not only have to come from corn. Corn and sugar based ethanol products were used as control type items. Then I produced ethanol from items like apple, pear, potato, sweet potato, and oranges, which were purchased from the bruised/discount fruit racks. Also during my Masters program, I was a teaching assistant for the Anatomy & Physiology labs at Scranton, which inspired my love for teaching.
After graduating with my Masters, I began teaching as an adjunct instructor at two additional local colleges, Marywood University and Johnson College. I worked at these institutions teaching various science classes for nearly 9 years (Johnson) and 10 years (Marywood). I taught for a year at Penn State Worthington Scranton in 2011-2012, so I’m not completely new to Penn State. I also taught off and on at the University of Scranton. I went full time at Marywood from 2014-2019 and was a department chair at Johnson from 2016-2018.
Though I was an adjunct instructor, I was continuing my education. I started a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy in fall 2009, which I completed in summer 2011 (right as my mother died). I walked for graduation early (thankfully), so my mom did get to see me graduate magna cum laude. I know philosophy seems like such a change for a science person, but they do have some very important connections and being good at one has made me better at the other. Philosophy is what also sparked my interest in Bioethics, which is one of my research interests.
In Fall 2011, I continued my alternative route and began work on my Masters of Arts in Theology, which I finally completed in May 2018. Within Theology, the importance of ethics and how we treat one another really grew. Maybe I drank too much Jesuit Kool-Aid, but the desire to help others was very important to me and something that I seek to continue. “Go forth and set the world on fire” St. Ignatius Loyola. I believe my Jesuit education has and will continue to help me do that as I do believe in educating the whole person and connecting education to the world around them.
During my time at Scranton, I was involved in a number of groups. I was a member of Performance Music Choir with the amazing Cheryl Boga from 2003-2011. I was also part of our Campus Choir and a cantor under the director of Jayne Lucas, who we lost to cancer in 2019. I am thankful to both women for the love and guidance over the years, as well as for helping me become a better singer. I was involved in the Chemistry Club and E.C.O. for a number of years. I also became a judge for PJAS, a tradition I am happy to continue today.
In October 2018, I began work on a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Management from Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The program at SEOK helped me see ways to be a leader and improve accountability. I would also say it was nice to learn about business efforts at sustainability. The work also helped me be more familiar with online teaching technology and how it can be executed successfully, which became useful during the pandemic. I am thankful to have had several really great instructors through the program. I completed the program in August 2020.
Beyond my educational experience, I have had the opportunity to work with several great programs for helping expand science and involve students in the process. In 2016, I was trained in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance – Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science Program (SEA-PHAGES). Though I really did not much about bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, the work in the program actually inspired a real love for that work and the associated bioinformatic annotations performed within the program.
In 2017, I trained with the Small World Initiative at the University of Connecticut. This program focuses on discovering potential antibiotic producing bacteria from the soil. With antibiotic resistance a continual issue in science, such work is important going forward. Additionally, this has been a great way to get nursing students from my microbiology labs involved in the scientific process and helping them see the benefits of the work as well. These two areas have also informed my teaching research. In Spring 2020, Small World Initiative and Tiny Earth Program work was brought to Penn State Schuylkill.
Finally, in 2021, I trained with the Genomics Education Partnership to learn more bioinformatics to be able to incorporate into online classes while we continued to fight against the SARS-CoV2 virus. The program teaches students to perform annotations of Drosophila (fruit fly) genomes. Though I am not a fan of fruit flies (they are so annoying at home), the work is actually a very interesting way to engage students in gene annotations of start and stop sites. With the pandemic continuing, the program will be incorporated into the microbiology labs as well.
Even educating students is a major part of my life, I continue with education, music and religion and seeking other ways to improve our world. At Penn State Schuylkill, I participate in the Sustainability group and have founded the Penn State Schuylkill Seed Bank Library to help others obtain heirloom seeds. I am also trying to help bring other programs to campus to help students and our community with sustainability.
I am also in a committed relationship with Dr. Jason Cutrera who works at the University of Pennsylvania. Jason’s previous work was on antibiotic resistant bacteria, which shows us microbiologists can get it together even during a pandemic. I have a dog, Eddy. Then we have 3 cats: Tonto (black tuxedo), Missy (gray tuxedo), and Molly (calico). I am thankful to have a loving family and cuddly fur babies.