Cynthia Church

Cynthia Church, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Biology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her expertise includes invertebrate zoology, parasitology, genetics, general biology, and international science education.

With more than two decades of experience in higher education, Church teaches a wide range of courses, including parasitology, invertebrate zoology, genetics, and general biology in both traditional and online formats. She also leads a study abroad course in the Galápagos Islands titled In Darwin’s Footsteps, which immerses students in the ecological and evolutionary history of one of the world’s most iconic natural environments.

Church’s research interests focus on parasitology, molecular genetics, and science pedagogy. Her doctoral research at the University of Colorado Boulder explored the role of the nuclear gene PET100 in the cytochrome c oxidase assembly pathway in yeast, combining gene cloning, confocal microscopy, and electron microscopy. Her work has been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (1996, 2005) and the Journal of Experimental Biology (1998). A more recent publication, Intestinal Infections in Humans in the Rocky Mountain Region, reflects her ongoing interest in applied parasitology and public health.

Before joining MSU Denver, Church served as a visiting assistant professor at Oberlin College in Ohio. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Colorado Boulder and a master’s degree in parasitology, with a thesis focused on the taxonomy of cestodes in round stingrays from Puerto Peñasco, Mexico.