Dr. Heather Tinsley received her B.S. in Molecular Biology from Auburn University in 2006 and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2010. She completed a short post-doctoral fellowship at the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala. before joining the University of Montevallo faculty in 2011, where she primarily teaches Principles of Biology, Introductory Biology I, Cell Biology, and Molecular Biology courses.
Dr. Tinsley’s primary research interest is studying the cGMP signaling pathway in human breast tissue. She has shown that activation of this signaling pathway in normal breast cells prevents tumorigenesis, while activation in cancerous breast cells will trigger cell death. Current projects include studying this pathway in lactating breast tissue in order to determine whether it may play a role in milk production and/or secretion.
Dr. Tinsley is also interested in the scholarship of teaching and has conducted several research projects related to innovative approaches to instruction and their impact on students’ learning. In 2017 Dr. Tinsley was appointed as the Director of the Malone Center for Excellence in Teaching, the University of Montevallo’s campus-wide center for teaching and learning.
