Western alumna named Distinguished Educator of the Year

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Western Michigan University alumna Erica Wehrwein knows how important it is to have teachers who encourage and inspire you.  

For Wehrwein, that encouragement came from her high school biology teacher Ferne “Bud” Ellis. 

“He really got me and my interest sparked in research through an independent study course. I just remember him showing me his master’s thesis book in class and at the time I thought ‘no way,’” says Wehrwein, who went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical sciences from Western. “He was one of my biggest inspirations in life and he continues to mentor me to this day.” 

Now, as an associate professor of physiology at Michigan State University, Wehrwein is being recognized for her teaching as the 2022 recipient of the Arthur C. Guyton Distinguished Educator Award by the Teaching Section of the American Physiological Society (APS). 

To be considered for this award, Wehrwein had to be nominated by an APS member, provide summaries of student course evaluations, have letters of support from colleagues and students, and exhibit a strong dedication to the physiology education field in the classroom and community. 

“It’s very humbling to realize that maybe I’m someone’s Mr. Ellis. I take that with a huge sense of responsibility,” says Wehrwein. “I was lucky I had really great teachers in my life and it’s a way of honoring that to pay it forward.” 

A path to teaching

In retrospect, it seems inevitable that Wehrwein would find herself teaching. But it took her some time to recognize this calling. 

“During undergrad, I was taking advantage of every possible thing to explore different career paths,” says Wehrwein, who served as a tutor, teaching assistant, researcher, nurse’s aide and even coached cheerleading in Galesburg, Mich. “I remember having this breakdown at the time thinking, ‘but those are each different paths, right? What am I going to do?’” 

That initial uncertainty about which path to take led Wehrwein to pursue her master’s degree at Western under the guidance of Dr. John Spitsbergen, then assistant professor of biological sciences and current department chair. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in physiology from MSU and work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic. 

But she continued to find herself seeking opportunities to teach at all grade levels from elementary to medical students. 

“I was feeling really intellectually stimulated and inspired working in clinical research at Mayo,  but over time I started to realize there was something missing in my heart. I loved the work that I was doing, but it just wasn’t quite as deeply fulfilling as teaching was,” says Wehrwein.

Wehrwein is now able to merge her diverse professional skills and passions at MSU, where she leads a capstone experience course, helping students through human physiology research projects while also mentoring them in grant writing, offering professional development and teaching. She uses her clinical experience from Mayo Clinic to teach in the medical school. 

She also serves as youth outreach director for the physiology department, which includes hosting K–12 students on campus for camps, inviting students to visit classrooms for science fairs and organizing physiology understanding (PhUn) Day at the Impression 5 science center. 

“I get to do it all. I didn’t have to pick one path. Isn’t that cool?” says Wehrwein. 

Beyond the classroom

When Wehrwein first started developing the capstone course, she found herself with more questions than answers. She wanted to understand what the students really needed from this course and that information hadn’t been systematically collected. 

Through the physiology department’s undergraduate curriculum committee, chaired by Wehrwein, she sought to determine how well the entire physiology program was servicing students’ needs. 

“I started calling up universities with similar physiology programs, and we slowly started forming this little grassroots network that launched into an official organization called the Physiology Majors Interest Group,” says Wehrwein, who founded the organization in 2014. 

Made up of 300 worldwide university faculty involved in physiology education, this consortium of educators developed a set of recommended curriculum guidelines for undergraduate physiology majors. This group and its guidelines have been key in a new APS strategic initiative to launch a national Center for Physiology Education (CPE). 

“The CPE is the single most exciting and important thing I think I’ve ever worked on. It is just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to launch something like that and the potential impact it can have globally on our discipline is huge,” says Wehrwein, who serves as co-chair of the CPE developmental task force that developed the center's mission and goals and will serve on the advisory board when it launches in fall 2022. 

With the data and research collected by her grass-roots organization and the development of the CPE, Wehrwein says that it's a “real full-circle moment” providing a national means to address her initial questions regarding what her students need to succeed. 

“Now we have national guidelines and a network of programs and resources available to assess students and the curriculum,” says Wehrwein. “Everything has been synergistic and building on each other to come together for the benefit of students.” 

Wehrwein was also the recipient of the 2020 Donald F. Koch Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award as part of MSU’s All-University Awards.

This story is published as part of the College of Arts and Sciences Annual Magazine—view the 2022 Magazine online.