Jo Anne Powell-Coffman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology Department
Office: 515.294.3906
Email: japc@iastate.edu
Dept homepage:
http://www.gdcb.iastate.edu/faculty/facultyDetail.php?id=100
Research homepage:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~japc/homepage.html

Education and Post-doctoral Training
Post-doctoral research, University of Colorado at Boulder
Ph.D., Biology, University of California at San Diego
B.S., Physiology, University of California at Davis

Role in the ISU ADVANCE program

Dr. Jo Anne Powell-Coffman, Associate Professor of Genetics, Development & Cell Biology, was the ADVANCE Professor in her department from January 2007 through spring of 2009. Dr. Powell-Coffman was responsible for coordinating ADVANCE activities in her department. She was a member of the Equity Advisor/ADVANCE Professor group, which meets twice monthly.

Dr. Powell-Coffman has worked toward communicating the needs of GDCB and STEM colleagues to the ADVANCE program. In the Collaborative Transformation process, Dr. Powell-Coffman has worked with the research team to edit the GDCB focus group report, has facilitated discussions of the report within GDCB, and has worked with the department chair and the ADVANCE team to develop and implement strategies to address issues that were illuminated in the GDCB focus groups. She was a panel speaker during the Collaborative Transformation workshop held in the spring of 2009. Dr. Powell-Coffman also presented ISU ADVANCE posters at disciplinary conferences (developmental biology) and participated in presentations to non-focal departments.

Research Interests
The Powell-Coffman research group employs a powerful genetic model system, the nematode C. elegans, to study how animals sense and adapt to their environment. Currently, the lab's research is focused on two biomedically important transcription factors: the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) and the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF).