From Virus Research to Teaching Excellence

“Host Pathogen Interactions” was all Carolyn Stenbak, PhD, needed.

In the undergraduate class with a slightly icky, vaguely unsettling name for a survey of bacteria and viruses and how they interact with human cells, the future Seattle University professor and Biology Department chair found her calling.

“That’s when I felt, yes, this is something that I am really interested in and I could study for a long time,” says Stenbak, who started teaching at Seattle University in 2007 and was promoted to chair of the Biology Department in 2022.

For Stenbak the path to becoming a professor wasn’t just her exposure as an undergraduate to the material—or, in this case, viruses, Stenbak’s specialty—that proved pivotal for her.

It was also her introduction to research as an undergraduate, something she carries with her when teaching classes ranging from introduction to biology for first-year students all the way up to highly specialized research with more experienced undergraduates.

“It’s such a critical period in a scientist’s development,” she says of the undergraduate years. “As a student you are learning about so many new things that you were not exposed to in high school. There are all of these ideas flying around in your head. Being able to work with students during that time, to explore those exciting ideas, while also giving them the tools to actually navigate the path of becoming a scientist is incredibly rewarding.”

One project saw Stenbak working with two other professors to study phycodnaviruses, viruses that infect algae, across various lakes in the greater Seattle area and western Washington, a project sparked by Abi Wells, ‘16, then a second-year student. What started as one student’s curiosity grew into an NSF-funded research project that has involved more than 10 undergraduate students.

The skills and connections Wells gained during that research project were essential to landing a position after graduation with a contractor for NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center as a genetics technician. With what she learned as an undergraduate she started on the job right away, already knowing some of the relevant procedures.

“She brought me into her lab, gave me the skills I would need for my career and showed me what it means to be a scientist,” Wells says of Stenbak. “This is where the Seattle University education shines, creating scientists who not only are capable of following a protocol, but who are curious and motivated to learn more.”

Alum Cooper Hayes, who has earned both a medical degree and a PhD in virology, says Dr. Stenbak “was hugely influential in my career as a scientist.”

Currently a pathology resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the 2016 graduate met Dr. Stenbak his first month on campus in fall 2012 as a freshman in biology. With a desire to get involved in research Dr. Stenbak invited Cooper to work in her lab that summer.

“Usually, professors like to have students with a little more experience join their labs, so I’m proud that she saw some potential in me,” says Cooper, who continued to spend summers doing research and studying viruses and presenting at conferences.

“In total I spent three summers in her lab,” he says. “Dr. Stenbak absolutely helped steer me on my current course and I consider her one of the most important mentors in my life.”

Though an expert in foamy viruses—a curious type of retrovirus that infects non-human primates—Stenbak is also guided by a drive to teach and engage undergraduates on their journey to becoming scientists. And exposing them to research has been at the forefront of her approach to teaching, where she fosters an excitement in students and helps them develop to the point where they are able to take the next step.

Key to engaging students in research is that in the Biology Department, the senior professors teach all levels of courses.

“I think it’s one of the reasons the faculty who are teaching at SU want to be here, because we get opportunities to work with students in a lab setting, in the classroom, throughout their entire training,” she says. “It’s not graduate TAs, it’s the faculty actually with those students.”

From introductory biology through the specialized classes usually taken by seniors, this allows students to start building connections and relationships with faculty right away.

“To me, that’s how you are able to capture the interest and excitement of students, and you are building connections that then help the students feel part of a community,” Stenbak says. “But you are also able to get those students who want to do undergraduate research to the right people and the right opportunities.”

For her part, Stenbak has researched foamy viruses—so-called for the appearance of bubbles when viewed under a microscope—that spread when a person is bitten or scratched by a monkey. What makes foamy viruses so interesting is they do all the things viruses like HIV do, but they don’t actually make a person sick. At least not yet.

“People are interested in understanding how foamy viruses work because they are unusual in many ways,” she says. “If these viruses did evolve to become pathogenic in humans we would also want to know how they work so that we could design effective drug targets to treat and prevent infection.”

At first Stenbak didn’t plan to be a teacher or even a scientist. She set her sights on engineering. Even after switching to microbiology as an undergraduate she planned on working in private industry. Though her father is a high school teacher and her grandfather was a college professor, teaching was not high on her list until graduate school when she found herself in front of a classroom, a requirement for her program.

“Up until this point, I really dreaded public speaking,” she says, describing herself as one to studiously dodge the spotlight.

“But once I started, I realized when you’re talking about something that is interesting to you, that you know a lot about and that the people you are talking to are interested in, it is a very different dynamic.”

Stenbak goes back to a brief complimentary email she received from the department chair when she finished her qualifying exam in graduate school—somebody who saw the potential she had for teaching—and makes sure to give positive feedback when she sees students following their curiosity.

“He took a few minutes to write that email to me saying, ‘You did a great job, I hope you consider teaching as part of your career.’ But it had a really big impact on me personally,” she says. “I try to keep that in the back of my mind. Getting that little bit of feedback can really help a student identify their strengths.”

Stenbak lives in Seattle with her husband, Saul, and their daughter, Hazel. The couple’s eldest daughter, Amelia, is a student at Trinity University in Texas. When not teaching and researching, Stenbak loves live music, quilting, kayaking and traveling.