Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Nicole L. Soper Gorden

Assistant Professor of Biology, Mars Hill University

100 Athletic Dr., Campus Box 6671, Mars Hill, NC 28754

nsopergorden@mhu.edu ~ (828) 689-1291

Education

University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN

Postdoctoral Associate, February 2013 to August 2015

Advisor: Dr. Julie Etterson

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA

PhD in Plant Biology Program, February 2013

Advisor: Dr. Lynn Adler

Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN

Bachelor of Arts, Biology and English, May 2007

Teaching experience

Mars Hill University (August 2015 to present), assistant professor

Teaching biology and botany classes for the biology department, from introductory level to capstone.

Courses taught:

(Bio120) Organisms and Evolution (with lab)
(Bio244) Vascular Plants (with lab)
(Bio346) Plant Taxonomy (with lab)
(Bio350) Research Methods in Biology (Junior Seminar)
(Bio450) Biology Senior Seminar
(Bio457) Directed Reading
(Hon207) Plants, Insects, and Society (Honor’s Mini Course)
(Hon220) The Science of Science Fiction (Honor’s Mini Course)

University of Minnesota Duluth (Fall 2014-Spring 2015), instructor

Wrote a course proposal for a new class (plant ecology). Taught full time for one semester (outside of other postdoctoral duties).

Courses taught:

(Biol3811) Plant Ecology (with lab)
(Biol3987) Communication in Biology

University of Massachusetts Amherst (Fall 2011-Fall 2012), instructor

As a graduate student, taught as the primary instructor for an upper-level biology class in two consecutive years.

Courses taught:

(Bio421) Plant Ecology (with lab)

University of Massachusetts Amherst (Fall 2007-Spring 2011), teaching assistant

Taught lab sections for biology classes including 4 semesters of introductory majors biology, 2 semesters of introductory non-majors biology, and 1 semester of senior-level plant ecology.

Gustavus Adolphus College (Fall 2004-Spring 2007), teaching assistant

Served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for introductory majors and non-majors biology labs.

Teaching development activities

Fall 2018, completed the Mars Hill University training for the Writing in the Disciplines (WID) Program
August 2016, attended symposia at the Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting on science communication tactics, flipped classrooms, and student involvement in the digitization of herbaria
August 2016, attended symposia at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting on teaching with ecology case studies, using natural history collections in undergraduate courses, and how to include research projects in classes
July 2014, attended symposia at the Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting on having students complete research in the classroom and student notetaking, and a seminar on how to work with students to understand the scientific literature
August 2013, attended symposia at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting on teaching and evaluating oral communication skills, how to teach data management skills, and resilience-building learning
August 2011, attended a workshop at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting on teaching philosophies
Spring 2011, completed a course on college teaching at UMass Amherst (OEB 797)
Fall 2008 – Fall 2009, mentored two undergraduate students who were interested in teaching as a career at UMass Amherst
Fall 2007 – Fall 2012, participated in the UMass Amherst Teaching Documentation Program, a program designed to help graduate students develop their teaching skills and knowledge

Service & outreach

Faculty collaborator to a group of 10-12^th grade young women whose proposal to study tomato germination on the International Space Station was accepted through the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program. I’m serving as a botany advisor for the students, who are working with Mrs. Kavajecz at iForward, an online charter school in Wisconsin.
Wrote an arboretum management plan (with feedback from the Arboretum Committee) and submitted a successful application to have the campus accredited as the Mars Hill University Arboretum (opening ceremony October 6, 2018).
Formed the Arboretum Committee to plan and manage the campus as an arboretum
Served as faculty co-mentor for Mars Hill University’s chapter of TriBeta, the national biology honor’s society
Volunteered to help care for and maintain the Mars Hill University Heritage Garden during summer 2018
Helped plan and implement the Mars Hill University Tree Trail (opened April 27, 2018)
Mentored an honor’s student (Storm Cash) at Mars Hill University on reading and understanding scientific literature for her freshman honor’s seminar (fall 2016)
Mentoring through the Botanical Society of America’s PlantingScience program, which matches botanists with K-12 classrooms who are planning plant-related experiments (2016 to present)
Section mentor for the Plant Population Ecology section for student attendees at the 2016 Ecological Society of America meeting
Co-organizer for a special topics issue based on our organized symposium at Botany 2014 (evolutionary insights of studies of geographic variation) for the American Journal of Botany, released January 2016 (volume 103)
With two other postdocs, was an organizer for a symposium at the 2014 Botany Conference (Botanical Society of America), held Wednesday, July 30, 2014 (“Evolutionary insights from studies of geographic variation: Establishing a baseline and looking ahead to future change”)
Recorded an episode of The Academic Minute for WAMC Northeast Public Radio (“Flower attraction and defense,” aired April 19, 2011)
University of Massachusetts Life Sciences Graduate Research Council (organized the 1^st annual Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium), secretary/treasurer 2011-2012
Volunteer mentor for the Ecological Society of America’s SEEDS mentorship program at the ESA 2010 and 2011 meetings
Fernald Entomology Club outreach for elementary age students, 2010-2012

Guest Lectures & Invited Talks

March 26, 2019, Invited talk at the Toe Cane Beekeepers Meeting in Burnsville, NC. “Plant and insect interactions, with an emphasis on pollinators.”
February 15, 2018, Guest lecture on pollination related to the design of the Heritage Garden for the Honor’s Seminar Class at Mars Hill University.
February 18, 2016, Invited seminar talk at Sigma Xi Meeting at Warren Wilson College. “War of the Posies: The ecology of floral antagonists and flowers.”
September 28, 2012, Invited seminar talk at University of Minnesota Duluth. “Interactions between floral mutualists and antagonists, and consequences for plant reproduction.”
April 17, 2012, Guest lecture for Topics in Field Ecology class at University of Massachusetts. “Running statistics, making & formatting figures, and making & formatting tables.”
October 9, 2012, Guest lecture for UMass Biological Sciences Talent Advanced Program (BioTAP)
December 5, 2012, Guest lecture for UMass Biological Sciences Club (BioSci),

Research Mentoring

Mars Hill University

Mentored two undergraduate students (Coral Foster and Andrew Disco) working on independent research projects. Both wrote successful proposals for funding through the Randolph Research Award. I expect data from both students’ work to be included in a manuscript I am working on for publication, and both students will be coauthors on the paper.

University of Minnesota Duluth

Mentored an undergraduate NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student during summer 2014 and through fall semester 2104 as he worked on an independent research project
Mentored two other undergraduate students on independent research projects
Mentored one undergraduate student learning about plant systematic and herbarium skills during summer 2014

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Mentored one undergraduate student who completed an honors thesis involving the induction of floral defenses after floral damage. His results have been published (Boyer et al. 2016).
Mentoring a second undergraduate student who completed an honors thesis involving the induction of floral defenses after damage to flowers by mechanical versus insect means.
Have mentored three undergraduate students who have completed independent projects related to my research.
Mentored an undergraduate student from an underrepresented group for summer 2008 through the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR). He completed an independent project, and presented a poster at both the University of Massachusetts and his home institution in Puerto Rico.
Mentored fifteen additional undergraduate students with practicum work, four of whom are from underrepresented groups.

Publications

† = undergraduate co-author

Soper Gorden, Nicole L., Coral Foster†, and Andrew Disco†. Resource-dependent trade-offs between chemical and indirect defenses in Chamaecrista fasicuclata. In prep.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L., Gina McClanahan†, Peter Maddaus†, Julie R. Etterson. Floral and leaf defenses both vary with latitude in Chamaecrista fasciculata. In prep.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L., Lynn S. Adler. 2018. Consequences of multiple flower-insect interactions for subsequent interactions and plant reproduction. American Journal of Botany 105: 1835-1846.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L., Lynn S. Adler. 2016. Florivory shapes both leaf and floral interactions. Ecosphere 7: e01326.
Boyer, Matthew D. H.†, Nicole L. Soper Gorden, Nicholas A. Barber, Lynn S. Adler. 2016. Floral damage induces resistance to florivory in Impatiens capensis. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 10: 121-131.
Etterson, Julie R., Heather Schneider, Nicole L. Soper Gorden, Jennifer J. Weber. 2016. Evolutionary insights from studies of geographic variation: Contemporary variation and looking to the future. American Journal of Botany 103: 5-9.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L., Katharine J. Winkler, Matthew R. Jahnke, Elizabeth Marshall†, Joshua Horky†, Colton Hudelson†, Julie R. Etterson. 2016. Geographic patterns of seed mass are associated with climate factors, but relationships vary between species. American Journal of Botany 103: 60-72.
Etterson, Julie R., Steven J. Franks, Susan J. Mazer, Ruth G. Shaw, Nicole L. Soper Gorden, Heather E. Schneider, Jennifer J. Weber, Katharine J. Winkler, Arthur E. Weis. 2016. Project Baseline: An unprecedented resource to study plant evolution across space and time. American Journal of Botany 103: 164-173.
Barber, Nicholas A., Nicole L. Soper Gorden. 2015. How do belowground organisms influence plant-pollinator interactions? Journal of Plant Ecology 8: 1-11.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L., Lynn S. Adler. 2013. Abiotic effects on biotic interactions in the annual plant Impatiens capensis. American Journal of Botany 100: 679-89.
Cipollini, Martin L., Maya Strahl†, Nicole Soper Gorden†, Patricia Tomlinson, and Richard Ware. 2013. Vegetative survey of Martha’s Meadow, an open limestone glade habitat in northwestern Georgia. Southeastern Naturalist 12: 317-338.

Professional Presentations

* = Person presenting; † = undergraduate co-author

Foster, Coral*†, and Nicole Soper Gorden. The effects of abiotic factors on growth and EFNs of Chamaecrista fasiculata. Oral presentation, April 10, 2018, Student Liberal Arts Mosaic at Mars Hill University, Mars Hill, NC.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L.*, Julie R. Etterson, Peter Maddaus†, and Gina McClanahan†. Floral and leaf defenses both vary with latitude. Oral presentation, August 3, 2016, Botany 2016, Savannah, GA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L.*, Julie R. Etterson, Peter Maddaus†, and Gina McClanahan†. Floral and leaf defenses both vary with latitude. Poster, August 12, 2016, Ecological Society of America Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L.*, Julie Etterson, Katharine Winkler, Matthew Jahnke, and Elizabeth Marshall. Project Baseline: A long-term genome bank and resource for studying geographic variation over time. Oral presentation, July 30, 2014, Botany 2014, Boise, ID.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L.*, Steven J. Franks, Susan J. Mazer, Ruth G. Shaw, Arthur Weis, Matthew Jahnke, Karen Updegraff, Julie R. Etterson. Project Baseline: A living genome bank to capture evolution in action. Poster, August 7, 2013, Ecological Society of America Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.
Servidone, Maria*†, Nicole Soper Gorden, and Lynn Adler. Effects of insect florivory versus mechanical damage on floral traits and plant reproduction. Poster, April 15, 2013, University of Massachusetts Amherst Undergraduate Research Symposium, Amherst, MA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L.* Interactions between floral mutualists and antagonists, and consequences for plant reproduction. November 27, 2012. Dissertation defense talk at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L.* and Lynn S. Adler. Floral antagonists affect plant reproduction and flower traits. August 8, 2012. Ecological Society of America Meeting, Portland, OR.
Soper Gorden, Nicole* and Lynn S. Adler. Effects of floral defense and attraction on flower insects. Oral presentation, November 18, 2011, University of Massachusetts Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium, Amherst, MA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole* and Lynn S. Adler. Effects of floral defenses and attraction on flower insects. Poster, October 8, 2011, University of Massachusetts Symposium in Plant Biology, Amherst, MA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole* and Lynn S. Adler. Effects of floral defense and attraction on flower insects. Oral presentation, August 9, 2011, Ecological Society of America Meeting, Austin, TX.
Soper Gorden, Nicole* and Lynn S. Adler. Why do plants with more flower galls also have more pollinators? Poster, October 2, 2010, University of Massachusetts Symposium in Plant Biology, Amherst, MA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole*. An ecological housing crisis: Tissue switching in a specialist galling insect. Poster, August 2, 2010, Ecological Society of America Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole*. An ecological housing crisis: Tissue switching in a specialist galling insect. Poster, October 3, 2009, University of Massachusetts Symposium in Plant Biology, Amherst, MA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole L.*, Lynn Adler. Changes in abiotic factors alter the strength and relative contribution of antagonistic and mutualistic interactions. Oral presentation, August 4, 2009, Ecological Society of America Meeting, Albuquerque, NM.
Soper Gorden, Nicole*, Jonathan Alfredo López Colón†, Lynn Adler. Abiotic environmental characteristics change plant-insect interactions in jewelweed (Impatiens capensis Meerb.). Poster, October 18, 2008, University of Massachusetts Symposium in Plant Biology, Amherst, MA.
López Colón, Jonathan Alfredo*†, Nicole Soper Gorden, Lynn Adler. Habitat characterization and how abiotic factors take part in insect interactions and mating system of an endemic species of eastern North America, Impatiens capensis Meerb. (jewelweed, Balsaminaceae). Poster, August 1, 2008, University of Massachusetts SPUR Poster Symposium, Amherst, MA.
Strahl, Maya*, Nicole Soper Gorden*, Patricia T. Tomlinson, Richard Ware, and Martin Cipollini. Vegetative survey of Martha’s Meadow, an open limestone glade habitat in northwester Georgia. Poster, August 6, 2007, Ecological Society of America/Society of Ecological Restoration Joint Meeting, San Jose, CA.
Soper Gorden, Nicole*, Maya Strahl, Richard Ware, and Martin Cipollini. A quantitative vegetative survey of Martha’s Meadow, an open limestone habitat on the Berry College campus, Floyd County, Georgia. Oral presentation, August 6, 2006, Berry College Student Research Symposium, Mt. Berry, GA.

Grants

(Andrew Disco) MHU’s Randolph Research Award for an undergraduate research project ($970.15), Spring 2018
(Coral Foster) MHU’s Randolph Research Award for an undergraduate research project ($492.68), Spring 2017
MHU Faculty Enrichment and Renewal Committee Grant ($2,240), summer 2016
UMD Chancellor’s Small Grant ($1,500), Fall 2013
UMD Postdoctoral Researcher ICR grant ($2,000), Fall 2013
UMass Plant Biology Gilgut Fellowship (~$20,000), June 2010 – June 2011
Ecological Society of America Plant Population Ecology Travel Award (~$500) – August 2010
NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDIG; $15,000), May 2010 – May 2012
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), Honorable Mention, 2009
Jane H. Bemis Endowment Scholarship ($2,600), summer 2008. Sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Natural History Collections Group
UMass Plant Biology and UMass Graduate School student travel awards, 2009 and 2012
Gustavus Adolphus College student travel award, 2007

Committee Work (Mars Hill University Only)

Admissions, Academic Standards, and Financial Aid, May 2017 to present
Arboretum Committee (chair), May 2017 to present
Environmental Studies Program Committee, May 2016 to present
Ramsey Center Steering Committee, January 2016 to present

Reviewing

I have served as a reviewer of peer-submitted manuscripts in my field of research for the following refereed publications (in alphabetical order):

American Journal of Botany
American Naturalist
Annals of Botany
Biological Invasions
Functional Ecology
Plant Ecology

Professional Organization Memberships

Ecological Society of America (section memberships in the Plant Population Ecology Section and the Teaching Section)
Botanical Society of America (section memberships in the Southeastern Biologists Section and the Teaching Section)
Association of Southeastern Biologists

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