Despite lingering budget cuts and funding issues, new staff members are joining the Baldwin Wallace community. 

The biology, geology, and environmental science department have appointed fresh faculty members this year. 

Dr. Daniel Margevicius, a graduate of Loyola University in Chicago and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, previously worked at Cleveland State, John Carroll, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lakeland Community College, but noted that Baldwin Wallace has been the “best of the bunch.”  

Dr. Margevicius aims to prepare students for professional environments, hoping that BW students will be suited to laboratory and research areas right out of school. He notes that the prevalence of biomedical sciences in the Cleveland area, with the “powerhouse” of the Cleveland Clinic and higher education such as Case Western Reserve University poses Baldwin Wallace–and other universities in the area–to take advantage of the existing infrastructure to set their students up for success. 

In the neuroscience realm of campus, Dr. Destiny Brakey, a graduate of Marietta College and University of Buffalo with a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience, has also joined the department.  She has worked closely with University Hospital on phase one clinical trials in oncology determining efficacy and safety of metastatic cancer treatment.  

Dr. Brakey says that she chose Baldwin Wallace because of her experience growing up in the area and the “reputation” that BW held. She also mentioned that the specific position for neuroscience was particularly appealing, saying that “there’s a lot of jobs out there for general biology or psychology, but to see a neuroscience opening was really exciting for me.”  

Dr. Brakey hopes to bring both her experience in labs and education, along with her experience as a first-generation college student to the department, and the university as a whole. She says that it is important for her to “connect with some of those students and kind of break down those barriers that are present in higher education.”  

She commented that neuroscience especially has, “…a lot of promise and a lot of opportunities and potential” for students. She hopes to aid students in getting involved in research and further education beyond their time at BW.  

Rebekah Jones is a botany professor currently on track to receive her Doctorate from Kent State University in Ecology. Jones has worked in a litany of companies around Cleveland including the Cleveland Metroparks, The Nature Conservancy, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and the Holden Conservatory. Having worked for the Metroparks and similar organizations, Jones is the living proof of the environmental science career ecosystem after college. 

Organizations that focus on the conservation of our natural environment provide an easily accessible job market for those in the environmental science industry.  

The Cleveland area is rich in a variety of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science careers. Baldwin Wallace is poised to exceptionally prepare and support its students in these fields, and already hass. The new staff in the Department shows that the area is supported by an ever-changing and experienced faculty.