School of Sciences

Dr. Malinda Fitzgerald  (home page)

(Her undergraduate research pages are at MHIRT and research . Her UT web page is at Dr. Malinda Fitzgerald ).

Title: Professor of Biology.
Program Director for the Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) program.
Office:  CW 112
Phone:  321-3262
e-mail:  malinda@cbu.edu

Length of service at CBU: Dr. Fitzgerald has been teaching at CBU since 1995.

Courses regularly taught: Principles of Biology I and II (BIOL 111 and BIOL 112) lecture and lab; Vertebrate Physiology (BIOL 312) lecture and lab; Mentored Research/ Independent Research (BIOL 463/463/465 and BIOL 461/462); and Biological Career Choices (BIOL 275); and Neuroscience (BIOL 451) lecture and lab; and Research Techniques (special topics - BIOL 495).

Formal Education: Dr. Fitzgerald has a B.S. and M.S from the University of Memphis. Her M.S. thesis was Ultrastructure of the peritrich ciliate Ambiphrya ameiuri and its attachment to the gill of the catfish Ictalurus punctatus (J. Protozool., 29(2): 213, 1982). Her major professor was Dr. B.A. Simco. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of TN Health Science Center in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Her thesis was A morphological and physiological characterization of the neuromuscular junction of the intersegmental muscle of the centipede Lithobious forficatus ( J. Submicrosc Cytol., 13(1): 1, 1981.) Her major professor was Dr. J.F. Reger. She obtained a postdoctoral fellowship from the Center for Neuroscience at UTHSC and worked with Dr. A. Reiner.

Background: Dr. Fitzgerald was the daughter of a career Navy father. She moved quite a bit: California, Guam, Newfoundland, Japan and finally settled in Memphis when her father was stationed and subsequently retired in Millington. Having traveled all her life she decided to stay in Memphis for college. She met and married Ron Fitzgerald while they were both working on their degrees at U of Memphis (then Memphis State). Ron worked in his father’s company, Fitzgerald Company, until 1997 when the company was sold to Ellendale Electric. He currently is a manager there. They have one daughter, Amanda, who is fifteen and in tenth grade at Ridgeway High School. Her parents currently live in Heber Springs, Arkansas and support CBU through the Crane Vision Research Fellowship.

Professional interests: Dr. Fitzgerald has continued to collaborate with Dr. Anton Reiner after her post-doctoral fellowship at UTHSC. She is interested in the neural regulation of choroidal blood flow and the importance of this regulation for the health of the eye. Her particular area of concentration is how neural regulation is altered in disease and in the normal aging process. She has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and presents her research at national and international meetings. Most recently she was a symposium speaker at the International Society for Eye Research in Sydney, Australia. She is the principle investigator of a Fogarty International/NIH funded training grant that provides international research experiences for students in Brazil and Uganda. She is a member of the Neuroscience Institute at UT, the Vascular and Vision Research Center Groups. She holds adjunct appointments at both UT and U of Memphis.

Service: Dr. Fitzgerald has served as a deacon for her church, Prescott Baptist Church. Through her church she has served on several committees, sung in the choir and served most recently on the Ministry Committee. At CBU, Dr. Fitzgerald has served as the Alpha Chi faculty sponsor since 1995 and has served on several CBU committees. Some of these are: Strategic Planning, Sabbatical, SACS, Rank and Tenure, the Engineering Biotechnology Advisory Board, CBU representative on the Bioworks/Biomedical Research Foundation Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the MAESC Program Committee. She reviews manuscripts for several scientific journals and has served on ad hoc review committees for NIH and NSF grants. Dr. Fitzgerald is a member of the Memphis Zoo Advisory Board and reviews conservation action network grants on that committee. She has also served as the liaison in the zoo internship program. She advises 20-25 students, has been in Who’s Who among both professionals and teachers, and received the Marguerite Cooper Award for teaching excellence in 2001.

Interests: Extra curricular activities involve family, the village and church related projects. Travel is still a major interest not only through research collaborations and presentations, but also through visits to Brazil in support and management of the undergraduate research training program. She loves sailing, water skiing, diving and almost any water sport. She also loves snow, and will fly or drive to see it when she has a chance. Music and drama also play a role in Dr. Fitzgerald’s life. She can play the piano and attends as many concerts and Orpheum productions as possible. She and her husband have recently started kick boxing classes for something fun to do together.