WKU Biologist Nancy Rice talked about “The Magic, Mystery, and Misfortune of Modern Kenya” in WKU Libraries’ Far Away Places series on Thursday, February 22 at Barnes & Noble Bookstore.
Photo Album | Audio File | Podcast RSS
Nany Rice is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Western Kentucky University where she teaches advanced cell biology, the molecular basis of cancer, and medicine in Kenya. A WKU alumna she received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Tennessee at Memphis and had postdoctoral experiences at the University of Tokyo and the University of Colorado. Her research interest is biomedical and focuses on using molecular and cellular techniques to investigate the genetic and cellular mechanisms for debilitating diseases.
Her current grant funded research involves the study of molecular mechanisms which lead to the high prevalence of hypertension in rural Kenya. It involves a community-based participatory Study that assesses six villages in Kasiagu, Kenya with regard to the prevalence and current management of hypertension as well as the frequency of common environmental risk behaviors associated with it.
Nancy has been involved with the Partners in Caring: Medicine in Kenya Program for many years, which allows pre-professional students to work in a medical service-learning exchange between Kenya and US physicians in an international medical context.
During the winter term 2018 Nancy led a study abroad program to Kenya which provided students the opportunity to learn about Kenyan culture and people while actively engaging in health-care services and education. WKU has partnered with local area Kentucky physicians and the Taveta District Health Office to conduct rural medical health clinics in the impoverished villages of the Kasiagu region of Kenya.
In 2014 she received Ogden College of Science and Engineering’s first Women in Science and Engineering Award.
