Communications Director

Crista Wadsworth, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Wadsworth joined RIT in 2019 after receiving her doctoral degree from Tufts University as an NSF‐GRFP Fellow (2016), and completing a postdoc at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases with Dr. Yonatan Grad. Her postdoctoral work highlighted the importance of commensal Neisseria as reservoirs of resistance for N. gonorrhoeae, which she is currently expanding upon at RIT using experimental evolution within the classroom as a tool to flesh out the Neisseria resistome – or all mechanisms of resistance available to the genus – while simultaneously providing research opportunities for RIT undergraduates. In addition, the Wadsworth Lab at RIT is interested in identifying novel resistance mechanisms in N. gonorrhoeae. These efforts couple both experimental microbiology with ‘omics‐based approaches. Dr. Wadsworth is also the Chair of the RIT College of Science Undergraduate Research Council in 2020 and is passionate about training the next generation of scientists by providing and facilitating hands‐on laboratory experiences for undergraduates with real‐world impacts. Her recent efforts are focused on developing commensal surveillance into a course-base undergraduate research experience (CURE) for students in the classroom setting.