I earned my undergraduate degree in Ecology and French from the University of Tennessee. For graduate school, I attended Brown University where I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. As a graduate student I worked on understanding the impacts of invasive species on native plants and animals and how climate change can impact the evolution of organisms around the world. Following my graduation, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Environmental Change Initiative at Brown University. In this position, I was jointly positioned between the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Epidemiology Departments and I conducted research on infectious diseases that impact wildlife.

After my postdoc, I worked as a faculty member at Winthrop University in the Biology Department for four and a half years. During this time, I taught courses on Marine Ecology, Ecology, Environmental Science, Botany, Global Change, and Experimental Design. I then joined the Belmont Biology Department in Spring of 2017. At Belmont, I teach Introduction to Environmental Science, Principles of Biology II, and other courses in the Environmental Science program. For my research, I work with students on a wide variety of topics including:

1. How land use change impacts species and ecosystems
2. How pollution drives disease outbreaks and changes in microbial communities
3. How movement of exotic species around the world impacts native species
4. How human alteration of the landscape can drive evolutionary change
5. How urbanization affects water quality

 When I’m not at Belmont, I love to hike, run, garden, and hang out with my wife and daughter.

Dr. Davis has his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and Master of Arts and Ph.D. from Indiana University with special study in the Kelly School of Business at Indiana. He came to Belmont in 1987 and taught full-time in the Communication Studies Department for 12 years before shifting his attention to 15 years of administrative work where he served as a Dean and as Associate Provost for Academic Affairs before returning to full-time teaching.

His teaching interests include skills development for individual students in public, small group, and interpersonal settings as well as strategic and tactical leadership communication in organizational settings. He is well-known on campus for his use of the “sticky wall” as a decision-making and consensus-building tool and is particularly interested in the growing social movement around sustainability and local food. His scholarly pursuits have included presentations at many local, regional, and national academic meetings on topics related to improved efficiency and effectiveness in higher education.

At home he tends a small flock of chickens, builds stuff out of wood, thumps around on a dulcimer, reads poetry and prose with his wife (a Professor of English at Belmont), and enjoys the company of his children and friends. His favorite book is Jayber Crow (Wendell Berry). His favorite poems are “Dover Beach” (Matthew Arnold), Holy Sonnet #74 (John Donne), and “The Summer Day” (Mary Oliver). His favorite musician is the late but great John Hartford. And his favorite meal is breakfast.

Dr. Maria Danielle Garrett, Associate Professor of Chemistry Education, joined Belmont University in the fall of 2014. She graduated Suma Cum Laude with her B.S. from the University of Tennessee, where she majored in Chemistry and minored in English. After graduating, Dr. Garrett began her studies as a graduate student in the Chemistry Department at Vanderbilt University, where her research work focused on band edge recombination in cadmium selenide, cadmium sulfide and cadmium sulfo-selenide alloy nanocrystals observed by ultrafast fluorescence upconversion. After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Garrett went on to receive her MAT from Trevecca Nazarene University.

Dr. Garrett has a diverse perspective on teaching, as her teaching experience lies in the high school and college levels. Dr. Garrett strives not only to implement a teaching style that has a strong foundation of student interaction, emphasizes practical applications and encourages thinking outside the box, but also to help students grow and cultivate their love of learning and science, finding a deeper appreciation for the world around them. She has taught courses in physical science, chemistry, physics and physical chemistry.

Dr. Garrett has served as faculty research advisor for undergraduate students, several of whom have made presentations at the Tennessee Academy of Science (TAS), the Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS), and the American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting. Her research interests include, but are not limited to, spectroscopy, calorimetry, and greener options in the chemistry classroom. Dr. Garrett currently teaches general chemistry, science methods for elementary education and several special studies chemistry courses, including a survey of green chemistry and sustainability, and principles and methods of peer tutoring in chemistry. Dr. Garrett is also heavily involved in the development and implementation of STEM outreach events for high school students and teachers.

Publications

Garrett, M. D. Interdisciplinary Learning Communities: Bridging the Gap Between the Sciences and the Humanities Through Forensic Science. In Teaching Chemistry with Forensic Science; Editor, Harper-Leatherman, A. S.; Huang, L.; ACS Symposium Series 1324; American Chemical Society: 2019, pp 109-136. Web Release Date: 26-Sept-2019; DOI: 10.1021/bk-2019-1324.ch007 (Abstract)

Garrett, M. D. and Garrett, J. B. Wavelength Analysis of LEDs using Handheld Spectroscopes, Chem. Educator. 2017, 22, 130-134. (Abstract)

Garrett, M. D. The Effectiveness and Range of Natural Acid-Base Indicators, Chem. Educator. 2016, 21, 36-39. (Abstract)

Bowers, II, M. J., McBride, J. R., Garrett, M. D., Sammons, J. A., Dukes, III, A. D., Schreuder, M. A., Watt, T. L., Lupini, A. R., Pennycook, S. J. and Rosenthal, S. J. Structure and Ultrafast Dynamics of White-Light-Emitting CdSe Nanocrystals, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 5730-5731.

Garrett, M. D., Dukes, III, A. D., McBride, J. R., Smith, N. J., Pennycook, S. J. and Rosenthal, S. J. Band Edge Recombination in CdSe, CdS and CdSxSe1-x Alloy Nanocrystals Observed by Ultrafast Fluorescence Upconversion: The Effect of Surface Trap States, J. Phys. Chem. C 2008, 112, 12736-12746.

Kippeny, T. C., Bowers, II, M. J., Dukes, III, A. D., McBride, J. R., Orndorff, R. L., Garrett, M. D. and Rosenthal, S. J. Effects of Surface Passivation on the Exciton Dynamics of CdSe Nanocrystals as Observed by Ultrafast Fluorescence Upconversion Spectroscopy, J. Chem. Phys. 2008, 128, 084713.

Garrett, M. D., Bowers, II, M. J., McBride, J. R., Orndorff, R. L., Pennycook, S. J. and Rosenthal, S. J. Band Edge Dynamics in CdSe Nanocrystals Observed by Ultrafast Fluorescence Upconversion, J. Phys. Chem. C 2008, 112, 436-442.

Outreach Events

It’s Easy Being Green: Budget-Friendly Safety-Conscious Chemistry Labs for the Science Classroom of Today summer workshop series for physical science and chemistry teachers

• Garrett, M. D. "Go Green with G3: Garden Indicators, Gases and Galvanic Cells." Belmont University: Nashville, TN, 2019.
• Garrett, M. D. "Beat the Heat, Catch a Wave and Make it Float." Belmont University: Nashville, TN, 2018.
• Garrett, M. D. "Please Pass the Salt: Chemistry – It’s 'Saltsational.'” Belmont University: Nashville, TN, 2017.
• Garrett, M. D. "Cranberry Chemistry: Science with Superfruits." Belmont University: Nashville, TN, 2016.
• Garrett, M. D. "Spice Up Your Chemistry Lab with Neutralization Reactions." Belmont University: Nashville, TN, 2015.

Celebrating the Women of Physical Science outreach event for high school students (2017 – present)
Sweet Sweet Chemistry: A Chromatography Challenge workshop for high school chemistry students (2016 – present)
Qualitative Analysis through Back Titrations: Neutralizing Agents – How Basic is It? workshop for AP chemistry students (2016 – present)

In the News

C&EN: AACT's Science Coaches Program Celebrates 10 Years of Connecting Chemists with Teachers

Belmont Department of Chemistry, Physics Step Up Outreach Efforts

Garrett Hosts Science Workshops for Middle, High School Teachers

Garrett Hosts Field Trip for Local Students through work with the ACS Science Coaches Program

Annual Celebrating the Women of Physical Science outreach event

Back Titrations: Neutralizing Agents – How Basic is It?

Sweet Sweet Chemistry: A Chromatography Challenge

As a native of Ohio, I received my B.S. in Zoology from Miami University (Ohio) and then earned my Ph.D. in Molecular and Developmental Biology from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to coming to Belmont, I was a research postdoctoral fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, Tennessee) in Experimental Hematology where I studied the development of hematopoietic stem cells (blood stem cells) in the zebrafish under the mentorship of Dr. Wilson K. Clements. Currently my research emphasis is studying the development of the axial skeletal system using zebrafish embryos as a model organism, specifically examining how sclerotome cell fates are determined. I teach Human Anatomy and Physiology, Principles of Biology I, Toxicology and look forward to developing a course in Developmental Biology in the future.