{"id":10110,"date":"2026-11-05T11:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biology\/?p=10110"},"modified":"2026-11-05T11:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:01:21","slug":"alumni-news-fall-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biology\/alumni-news-fall-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 id=\"h-undergraduate-alumni-spotlight\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Undergraduate Alumni Spotlight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Victoria Garza-Nagel \u201926 made the most of her time at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee by seeking out broad opportunities to learn, serve, and gain hands-on experience. Through the Community Leaders Internship Program (CLIP), she completed internships that broadened her professional skills while helping her discover where her interests and strengths could make the biggest impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Walker&#8217;s Point Youth &amp; Family Center, Victoria developed skills in crisis intervention and quick decision-making to support vulnerable youth. The experience was so rewarding that she was hired by the organization after completing her internship. She also gained valuable field experience with the Lake Michigan Bird Observatory, where she helped lead a biochar project that converted invasive tree species into <a>a carbon<\/a>-rich material to improve soil health and support ecosystem restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Victoria also conducted undergraduate research in Dr. Madhusudan Dey&#8217;s laboratory, studying antimicrobial compounds produced by <em>Xenorhabdus szentirmaii<\/em> and their role in ribosomal quality control. Working in the lab strengthened her technical skills and challenged her to think critically and confirmed her interest in a research career. Right after graduating in Spring 2026, Victoria got a laboratory position with Eurofins, where she was offered the job immediately after the interview!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Victoria plans to pursue graduate school and continue research in an academic setting. She said that her \u201cbackground with both working in crisis situations and biology has contributed to my unique approach to problem solving and makes me feel more driven and enthusiastic about solving problems that impact different scales both in our direct community and on a global ecological level, encourage future graduates to remember to always keep going and that even when life becomes hard you become tougher! Your resilience is a skill set that will require exercising but pushing forward to achieve your dreams will never be a fruitless effort!\u201d We here in BioSci couldn\u2019t agree more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-graduate-alumni-spotlight\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Graduate Alumni Spotlight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignleft uwm-c-img--left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"264\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/10\/Pic-14-264x300.webp\" alt=\"PhD Wendy Shelton.\" class=\"wp-image-10092\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/10\/Pic-14-264x300.webp 264w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/10\/Pic-14.webp 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 264px) 100vw, 264px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wendy Shelton was awarded a PhD in Biological Sciences degree in December 2024.&nbsp; Her innovative research in Dr. Karron\u2019s lab explored the evolutionary strategies used by flowering plants to maximize reproductive potential.&nbsp; Through elegant fields, greenhouse and laboratory experiments, she discovered that flowering schedules of individual plants fluctuate markedly from day to day, leading to wide variation in flowering synchrony within and among populations.&nbsp; In January 2025, Wendy was appointed as an undergraduate Laboratory Manager where she oversees labs for six large enrollment courses totaling more than 1000 students per semester.&nbsp;&nbsp; Wendy also plays a critical role in training and supervising graduate students and teaching assistants in the UWM Dept of Biological Sciences.&nbsp;&nbsp; She is also the curator and designer of the Biological Sciences Mini Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-alumni-updates\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alumni Updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you have a new address, job, career accomplishment, or other good news that you would like to share with us? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/advance\/about\/resources\/update-your-information\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>update your information<\/u><\/a>\u00a0with University Advancement to stay connected to the UWM Alumni Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are looking to stay connected with fellow alumni and give back to current students, join <a href=\"https:\/\/www.panthersconnect.uwm.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Panthers Connect<\/u><\/a>, UWM\u2019s private networking, mentoring and engagement platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Undergraduate Alumni Spotlight Victoria Garza-Nagel \u201926 made the most of her time at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee by seeking out broad opportunities to learn, serve, and gain hands-on experience. Through the Community Leaders Internship Program (CLIP), she completed internships that &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33027,"featured_media":10086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[92,1],"tags":[100,96],"class_list":["post-10110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-newsletter","category-uncategorized","tag-alumni","tag-fall-2026"],"uwm_unpublish_requested":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Biological Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biology\/alumni-news-fall-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumni News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Undergraduate Alumni Spotlight Victoria Garza-Nagel \u201926 made the most of her time at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee by seeking out broad opportunities to learn, serve, and gain hands-on experience. 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