Kathy Steece-Collier

Kathy Steece-Collier received a dual Bachelor of Science with honors in Chemistry and Biology at Eureka College and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. After studying basic neurochemistry in graduate school she decided to focus her subsequent research efforts on improving human health. Toward to this goal she did a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Rochester studying neural grafting in experimental Parkinson’s disease (PD) under the tutelage of Dr. John Sladek. Dr. Steece-Collier has held faculty positions at University of Rochester, Rosalind Franklin University/Chicago Medical School, Rush University in Chicago, University of Cincinnati, and since 2010 has been a Professor in the Department of Translational Neuroscience in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. The focus of her research over the past 30 years has been on development of improved therapeutics for individuals with PD with particular emphasis in understanding how the brain responds to, and remodels itself in response to neurodegeneration (i.e.: neuronal death) and therapeutic interventions for PD.