{"id":22111,"date":"2026-08-23T14:10:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T18:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=22111"},"modified":"2026-08-23T14:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T18:19:38","slug":"lisa-limeri-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/lisa-limeri-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Fostering Resilience in the Biology Classroom: Q&A with Lisa Limeri"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How do students learn to navigate challenges and persist through them? For Dr. Lisa Limeri, a new assistant professor in University of Rhode Island\u2019s Department of Biological Sciences<\/a>, that question is at the heart of her research.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limeri began her academic journey studying ecology and evolution, earning her Ph.D. while researching the evolutionary mechanisms that maintained diversity in butterfly color patterns. During her doctoral research, she struggled with some research failures and became interested in understanding motivation and resilience. That experience ultimately inspired her to begin studying education and motivation <\/em>during her postdoctoral research<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Limeri\u2019s research focuses on how biology undergraduates navigate challenges in their studies and how instructors can create learning environments that foster motivation and resilience. Her work brings together her background in evolutionary biology and her interest in education to explore how students can be better supported as they learn, persist, and succeed in biology.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q.<\/strong> What first sparked your interest in your field?<\/strong>

I became excited about education research when I realized that we could make small, cost-effective changes that have a big impact on people\u2019s lives. For many of society\u2019s problems, solving them requires huge investments of resources and time. In education, though, there are many things within a student\u2019s and an instructor\u2019s control that can help move the needle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What questions are you most excited to explore in your research?<\/strong>

I\u2019m excited about my next large project, which will focus on identifying instructor practices that can improve student-instructor communication and create classroom environments that support student motivation and resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were explaining your research to a non-scientist, how would you describe it?<\/strong>

At its core, I\u2019m interested in questions like: How do we teach and learn biology effectively as undergraduates? How do people persist through challenges? And how can we help all students develop resilience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What<\/strong> are you most excited to teach at URI? <\/strong>

I\u2019m especially excited to teach introductory biology! I love intro because having a strong foundation is so important to students\u2019 future success. I love the potential I have to impact students early in their academic careers and help set them up for success in their future courses and careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you reading, watching, or listening to lately (academic or otherwise)?<\/strong>

On my commutes, I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of NPR. My new favorite relaxing music is Laufey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there anything else you\u2019d like the URI community to know about you?<\/strong>

I\u2019m so grateful and excited to join a university community that values evidence-based and inclusive education!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do students learn to navigate challenges and persist through them? For Dr. Lisa Limeri, a new assistant professor in URI\u2019s Department of Biological Sciences, that question is at the heart of her research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":22112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22111"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22117,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22111\/revisions\/22117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}