Adam Rollins

Dr. Adam Rollins joined Lincoln Memorial University in August 2008 and immediately engaged his philosophy of utilizing a student-centered approach to integrate his teaching, scholarship, and service in support of the University’s mission. Toward these means he contributed to the delivery, redesign, and creation of courses, programs, and research opportunities at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the School of Mathematics and Sciences and the Institution as a whole. Although born in rural West Virginia, his scholarly pursuits have taken him to five continents and resulted in several publications, workshops, lectures, and grants. Dr. Rollins’ Appalachian heritage combined with his global perspective have made him well suited to interact and identify with LMU’s diverse population of students, faculty, and staff. Dr. Rollins currently serves as the Dean for the School of Mathematics and Sciences and the Program Director for the Master of Science program’s Life Sciences Research Major.

Since joining LMU, Dr. Rollins has been deeply involved with curricular assessment and datadriven improvement. He contributed to the restructuring of LMU’s Biology pre-med track which aligned the program with current standards ensuring that LMU’s students were (1) better prepared for the MCAT and (2) competitive applicants to professional and graduate programs. He led the modernization of the natural resources related programs which resulted in the discontinuance of LMU’s Environmental Science and Wildlife and Fisheries Biology Programs. Strategically-selected and updated components of these two programs along with the creation of several new courses resulted in the establishment of LMU’s Conservation Biology Bachelor of Science Program with two tracks (a) Wildlife and Fisheries Management and (b) Conservation Biology Research.

Contributing to the development of graduate-level education programs has been an important goal for Dr. Rollins. As such, he contributed to the working group that established LMU’s Master of Science Program. This program offers four majors (1) Anatomical Sciences, (2) Biomedical Sciences, (3) Life Sciences Research, and (4) Veterinary Biomedical Science. Dr. Rollins is the Program Director for the MS Life Sciences Research Major within which he has served as the major professor for a student who successfully completed a traditional research-based thesis and was subsequently awarded a Masters degree. Dr. Rollins served as a member of a working group to develop an Integrative Biosciences doctoral (PhD) program.

Dr. Rollins has worked to increase the level of scholarship and integration not only in the School of Mathematics and Sciences, but campus-wide and beyond. This is evidenced through his involvement as one of the founding members of LMU’s Honors Scholars Program. This program provides engaged academic experiences across all of LMU’s Schools through experiential and service learning opportunities which ultimately enrich the LMU community. In addition to being one of the founding members, he has also served as the program’s Interim Director and Chair of the Honors Scholars Council — a group for which he currently serves as an ex-officio member.