Michele G. Wheatly

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Dr. Wheatly has been dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and professor of Biological Sciences (since 1994) at Wright State University since 2002. Wright State is a comprehensive public doctoral research university (high research activity).

Wheatly’s research has focused on comparative physiology, most recently using a crustacean model to understand the logic of epithelial calcium transport. She has been the principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on approximately $21.5 million in grants with 24 years of continuous NSF funding as PI. She has written or contributed to over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters. She has taught courses in biology, marine animal physiology, women in science, and human computer interaction, among others.

Under Wheatly’s leadership, annual research expenditures for the college more than doubled from nearly $7 million to $15 million, graduate enrollment has increased by 68 percent and undergraduate enrollment has increased by 10 percent. She implemented a comprehensive development plan that has resulted in a 15-fold increase in gifts annually.

Wheatly provides leadership to a wide variety of regional initiatives impacting economic development programs such as the Base Realignment and Closure Commission Academic Task Force, pre-kindergarten-through-university innovations including the Dayton Regional STEM School, and an NSF ADVANCE grant for increasing the participation and advancement of women in science and engineering careers.

Wheatly has also led a variety of diversity and social justice initiatives. Creating Laboratory Access for Science Students (CLASS), which has enhanced accessibility in laboratories, was recognized by Congress in 2004 as a model program. She recently successfully launched an NSF-funded Regional Alliance in Disability in partnership with The Ohio State University. As part of her effort to support students, she implemented a series of curricular reforms in STEM, some in partnership with a local community college. Within her college, she established a “Dean’s Circle” of undergraduate representatives and revamped the advising in the two largest undergraduate majors – biology and psychology.

Prior her to appointment as dean, Wheatly served as chair of Biological Sciences at Wright State from 1994 to 2002. From 1984 to 1994 she was a professor of Zoology at the University of Florida. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and doctorate of comparative physiology at Birmingham University, held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in Canada, and participated in executive training at Harvard.