Faculty/Staff Directory

Back to Search

|

View All Faculty/Staff (By Name)

|

View All Faculty/Staff (By Department)

Tara Kishbaugh

POSITION: Dean - School of Sciences, Engineering, Art and Nursing; Professor of Chemistry

DEPARTMENT: School of Sciences, Engineering, Art and Nursing

LOCATION: Main Campus, Harrisonburg | UC 275C

PHONE: (540) 432-4665

EMAIL: tara.kishbaugh@emu.edu

Dr. Tara L.S. Kishbaugh was appointed academic dean at EMU in July 2019, after being chair of the biology, chemistry, and environmental science programs for six years. Tara is a proud first generation college student who obtained her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Wheaton College and her graduate degree in organic chemistry at Dartmouth College under the mentorship of Gordon W. Gribble.  Her graduate studies focused on the reactivity of electron deficient indoles.She was a Dreyfus postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth campus. Dr. Kishbaugh has over twenty years experience teaching organic, general, medicinal, and environmental chemistry as well as seminars on ethics, land use, and food chemistry. Tara has been involved in a number of campus-wide projects, such as launching EMU Common Reads and creation of a center for teaching and learning. Her administrative work includes curriculum development, program development, grant writing, principal investigator and co-principal investigator on three grants from the NSF related to STEM education, faculty development, and retention within STEM. Tara’s research interests currently include STEM education for greater understanding and retention.

Dr. Kishbaugh’s research interests include
- Chemical education projects, such as assessing non-content learning in laboratory research projects, or
- Assessing student familiarity with and understanding of green chemistry, or
- Improving student’s engagement with math coursework by adding contextual relevance to the assignments

Education

PHD, Dartmouth College (Organic Chemistry)
BS, Wheaton College (Chemistry)

visit graphicVisit
apply graphicApply