The Department of Biology awarded Dr. Leslie Coonrod the 2021-2022 James Kezer Teaching Award for her exemplary contribution to the teaching of science during the Biology Commencement on June 13, 2022. A senior lecturer and the Director of the Bioinformatics and Genomics Track within the Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program, Coonrod has been with the program since 2015 and helped build it from the ground up. She received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Oregon in 2012, where her work focused on identifying small molecule treatments for Myotonic Dystrophy (DM).  This award comes from numerous nominations from Dr. Coonrod’s students, who have benefited to her innovative teaching approaches and dedication to their successes, both in and out of the classroom.