For Erika Boerman, MSU Created a Path to Promising Future
By Chuck Carlson
For Dr. Erika Boerman, Michigan State University was the place she grew up in more ways than she can count.
"Michigan State will always be extremely special to me," she said in December after receiving the prestigious 2023 Kenneth E. Moore Distinguished Lecturer Alumni Award from the MSU Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. "My graduate education here stands up to any that I have encountered, whether it's other public universities, private colleges, Ivy League. I feel extremely prepared for everything I've encountered. Post-doc, professional-wise, I never felt there was something I should have gotten training in that I didn't get. I was extremely lucky."
A Grand Rapids native and a first-generation college student, she wasn't even sure she wanted to attend MSU. But, after considering her interest in MSU's Lyman Briggs science-based residential college for undergraduates and her desire to stay closer to home, she decided on East Lansing. It was a decision she never regretted.
Over the course of nine years, she earned her B.S. in Human Physiology in 2005 and then her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 2010. She also spent another year as a research and teaching assistant under her mentor, Dr. William Jackson.
Then in 2011, she joined the Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Missouri, where she was first a Postdoctoral Fellow, then a research assistant professor, and she is currently a tenure track assistant professor and director of the department's Graduate programs.
When informed she would receive the 23rd Moore Award dating back to 2000, she said simply, "I was honestly shocked." But Dr. Jackson, her MSU mentor with whom she has developed a strong and lasting friendship, was not.
"I am so proud of who she is, the science she's doing, and the academic she's become," said Dr. Jackson, who nominated her for the award. "She has embraced every aspect of it. She has checked every single box at an earlier stage (in her career) than most people do. I think she has a really bright future, and I'm excited to see where she goes."
Dr. Susan Barman, the awards committee chair for the department, said Boerman was an easy choice for this year's honor.
"The award is intended to honor research, teaching, and service, and she's done all three," Dr. Barman said. "I think she's a fantastic role model for students here, and her responsibilities (at Missouri) are remarkable. She's the Graduate Program Director there, and I've never heard of an assistant professor who had that role."
Boerman demonstrated her love of teaching to the department faculty, students, and staff who attended her recent seminar on the topic, "The Perivascular Neuro-Immuno-Adipose Axis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease."