Christine Pfund, PhD

Dr. Pfund is the Associate Director of the Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin. Through her work, Dr. Pfund has focused on preparing current and future faculty to be effective teachers and mentors. Dr. Pfund played a key role in the design of the National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology and led an evaluation study of its impacts on faculty participants. Dr. Pfund has been integrally involved in developing, implementing, documenting, and evaluating a training seminar for research mentors working with undergraduate researchers as well as a seminar to support undergraduate researchers themselves. She has helped develop the manuals for facilitators of these seminars, Entering Mentoring and Entering Research, and co-authored papers documenting the effectiveness of these seminars. Dr. Pfund has incorporated mentor training in the research programs across multiple disciplines, including those focused on D&I research. Dr. Pfund is currently co-leading two NIH-funded research studies; one is randomized trial designed to test the impact of research mentor training on both mentors and mentees at 16 sites; the other is a mixed-methods study investigating specific factors in mentoring relationships that account for positive student outcomes and longevity in science.