Elizabeth Gleim

In my classes at Hollins I make every effort to provide opportunities for hands-on, inquiry-based learning. From collaborating with an award-winning architect to design a sustainable community to spending days in the field learning to identify common native and invasive woody plants, it’s always an adventure! While students get the required foundational knowledge for success, we also work on developing critical thinking skills and the ability to apply your knowledge. In lab, we focus on performing authentic research projects and developing technical skill sets that will serve students within their chosen career path.

As a researcher, I am a wildlife disease ecologist and my particular area of expertise is in tick-borne disease ecology. I especially enjoy examining the ways in which humans affect disease and wildlife dynamics with much of my past work centering around the effects of prescribed fire on tick population dynamics and disease risk.

Professor Gleim’s research on tick-borne diseases is well known and those familiar with her work know her as the “Tick Lady.”

Her story 

[10.2.23] Sierra Magazine reports that “A small group of pioneering researchers are studying how controlled (prescribed) burns could be used to slow the spread of ticks and their pathogens.” One of those researchers is Associate Professor of Biology Elizabeth Gleim, and you can read more about her studies that explore the long-term impact of fire on tick populations.

[8.23.22] Ciera Morris ’19, Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Elizabeth Gleim ’06, and Professor of Biology C. Morgan Wilson, along with colleagues from Old Dominion University and the University of Georgia, have written an article that has been published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, a peer-reviewed journal. Morris is the lead author for the piece, which is entitled “Tick Species Composition, Collection Rates, and Phenology Provide Insights into Tick-Borne Disease Ecology in Virginia.”