Degree
BA
Program Faculty
S. Diane Lund, Ph.D.
Dr. Diane Lund has served in leadership roles at the university since she joined the faculty in 2003. Prior to UP, she was a Level III Instructor at Great Falls College Montana State University. A postdoctoral research fellowship at the McLaughlin Research Institute brought her to Great Falls in 1991. She was a National Academies Education Fellow in the Life Sciences in 2014. Her research interests center around sustainable practices for the development of food products, utilizing UP’s experimental aquaponics system.
Dr. Lund creates opportunities for students to actively pursue solutions to the pressing problems of this planet. She is involved with the core initiative of integrating sustainability across the curriculum. With her students, she attends regional conferences such as the bi-annual Pre-Medical WWAMI conference and the annual Murdock College Science Research conference. She created a “rubber hits the road” Junior Science Seminar course to prepare students for success with graduate school applications. Overall, she keeps her focus on educating the whole student, with an eye toward helping students develop the ability to excel in a demanding discipline.
In her distinguished career, Dr. Lund served as both chair of the faculty and the faculty representative to the University Board of Trustees. She served as division chair multiple times prior to being named associate dean in 2016.
In her free time, she enjoys cooking, gardening, fishing, hiking, camping, snowshoeing, and reading. On the creative, artsy side, she dabbles in stained glass art, and is even a bit of a “fix-it” person. And her dog, Maya, thinks she is the best. She would say that the feeling is mutual!
BA, Carroll College
PhD, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine
“A candle loses none of its light by lighting another.”
-Jalal ud-Din Rumi, 13th-century Persian poet, mystic, and scholar
Paleontologist Jessica Martin moved to Montana for the fossils, serving as executive director of Paleo World Research Foundation, a non-profit in eastern Montana. She joined the university faculty in 2013, and teaches wildlife biology, including senior geographic information systems (GIS) and geobiology. (GIS is a mapping program used to quantify and express relationships in wildlife and habitat management.)
Her research interests include evolutionary relationships between species, and applications of the GIS system. She enjoys providing students with useful skills relevant to work they can do immediately in the field. She and her colleagues work together to support student research projects, including a recent water contaminant research project related to mining.
The trunk of her Volkswagen Beetle is full of rocks…of all shapes, sizes, and compositions. Montana is like heaven to this rock hound! She also loves to travel, hike, and fish. She has entered the lottery to fish the Smith River but has not yet won.
BS, Georgia Southern University
MS, San Diego State University
“If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn’t call it research.”
-Albert Einstein
Jennifer Swanson, Pharm.D.
Dr. Jennifer Swanson conducted her postgraduate clinical research at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, while teaching pharmacology at associated healthcare organizations in Philadelphia. She spent the subsequent decade working in various capacities for the USPHS Indian Health Service in Montana. Since joining the university faculty in 2016, her favorite course has been Human Anatomy and Physiology, and her special interest is science writing.
In addition to her biology coursework for the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dr. Swanson teaches Research Design and Statistics and Antimicrobial Stewardship for the UP School of Health Professions. Known for assigning thought-provoking readings in her courses, she was also the instigator of UP’s Science Journal Club. She is passionate about providing opportunities for students to engage in critical thinking, while keeping a casual, friendly atmosphere in the classroom.
If she’s not in her office, she’s probably recycling, nose in a book, or on horseback…not necessarily in that order!
BS, University of California, Davis
MS, Montana State University, Bozeman
PharmD, University of California, San Francisco
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
-Mark Twain, 19th century author
Contact Information
University of Providence
1301 20th Street South
Great Falls, Montana 59405