Biography
Dr. Liz Mansberger joined Juniata College in 2002 and became a full-time faculty member in 2014. She teaches courses in medical microbiology, introductory biology labs, cell biology, nutrition, and criminalistics, as well as health professions seminars and a local engagement course. She has served on the health professions committee since 2016, working to guide and support students as they pursue their goals of attending graduate school in healthcare.
Dr. Mansberger has significant interests in rural community health and health education. This has led to collaborating with the local community to understand its needs and providing students with experiential and community-engaged learning opportunities.
Prior to her arrival at Juniata, Dr. Mansberger was an assistant professor at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, where she taught the Molecular and Cellular Basis of Medicine and studied IL-1 induced genes in human gingival and synovial fibroblasts. She also held an instructor position at The Pennsylvania State University where she taught labs for Introductory Biochemistry and the Freshman Seminar on College Life.
Dr. Mansberger earned her B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Maine and her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from The Pennsylvania State University, where she researched the molecular and biochemical characteristics of lignin-degrading enzymes from a white rot fungus. She pursued postdoctoral research at Dartmouth College, studying the circadian regulation of genes in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and a biotech company, where she investigated natural pesticide production using Bacillus thuringiensis toxin.