Alix Fink
Associate Provost of Research and Academic Initiatives and Professor of Biology

Alix D. Dowling Fink is the Associate Provost for Research and Academic Initiatives and Professor of Biology at Longwood University, a public master's university in Virginia. In this capacity, she leads the Office of Research, Grants, and Sponsored Projects and serves as the university’s primary liaison to the statewide Transfer Virginia initiative. Previously, she served as the Wilma Register Sharp and Marc Boyd Sharp Dean of the Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars. She is involved in collaborative interdisciplinary projects across the university, working with faculty in the arts and sciences and partners in student affairs. Among those collaborations is the long-running Longwood@Yellowstone National Park program that immerses students in the challenges of the stewardship of public lands. In its 14 years, the project has been the context for serious civic inquiry by more than 400 Longwood students.

Alix is committed to several national projects focused on teaching and learning. She has been involved with SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) for two decades and has served as a campus leader, national SENCER Leadership Fellow, and co-director for the Chesapeake Bay SENCER Center for Innovation. With physicist Dr. Michelle Parry, she developed a SENCER model course for an interdisciplinary, topic-driven general education science course known as The Power of Water, which has since been modified to serve as a freshman seminar for Longwood’s Civitae Core Curriculum.

Alix serves as a Vision and Change Leadership Fellow for PULSE (Partnership in Undergraduate Life Sciences Education), a national organization focused on broadening the implementation of the recommendations of AAAS’ Vision and Change report and transforming life sciences education. She serves as the Principal Investigator for a National Science Foundation grant that supports the PULSE Ambassadors Program, a network of life sciences faculty members who work with academic departments to develop cohesive action plans for change.

Alix also serves as co-chair for the National Collegiate Honors Council’s Place as Text (PAT) Committee. For approximately four decades, the PAT committee has developed and offered programs in two areas: interdisciplinary, place-based learning for Honors students and professional development for Honors faculty and staff members.

In her free time, she enjoys an old farmhouse, a weedy garden, a pack of mutt dogs, four very small goats, a flock of misfit chickens, and one bird-loving husband (not necessarily in that order).

Peer-reviewed publications

Cannata, S. M., J. Peters, A. Dowling Fink, E. L. Kinman, J. Pederson, P. L. Poplin, and J. B. Znosko.  2021.  Lost in learning: Mapping the position of teacher in the classroom and beyond.  Pages 21-46 in Place, self, community: City as Text™ in the twenty-first century.  B. Braid and S. E. Quay (Eds.).  National Collegiate Honors Council.  Web access:  https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcmonochap/92/ 

Parry, M., W. Znosko, A. Dowling Fink, M. Fink, K. Fortino, M. Rhoten, and S. Blincoe.  2019.  Starting with SENCER: a first-year experience framed by the science and civic issues of the Chesapeake Bay.  Science Education and Civic Engagement: An International Journal 11(2):11-21. Web access:  http://new.seceij.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Fink.pdf

Donnelly, S. M., A. D. Dowling Fink, M. L. Fink, M. L. Lunsford, M. C. Rhoten, and K. N. Scheitlin.  2012.  Full immersion: the Chesapeake Bay watershed as an environment for learning science in a civic context. Science Education and Civic Engagement: An International Journal 4(2):34-41.  Web access:  https://d32ogoqmya1dw8.cloudfront.net/files/seceij/summer12/donnelly.pdf.pdf

Cole, N. S., and A. D. Dowling Fink.  2010.  Complex citizenship:  framing an integrative pedagogical approach to prepare 21st century Citizen Leaders.  Pages 181-190 in Stewardship of Public Lands:  A Handbook for Educators.  American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC

Dowling Fink, A. D., and N. S. Cole.  2010.  Returning wolves and removing mountains:  building on the Yellowstone case to create a new approach to civic education.  Pages 78-88 in Stewardship of Public Lands: A Handbook for Educators.  American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC

Lunsford, M. L., and A. D. Dowling Fink.  2010.  Water taste test data.  Journal of Statistics Education 18(2).  Web access:  http://ww2.amstat.org/publications/jse/v18n1/lunsford.pdf

Dowling Fink, A. D., and M. L. Lunsford.  2009.  Bridging the divides:  using a collaborative honors research experience to link academic learning to civic issues.  Honors in Practice 5:97-109.  Web access:  http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1089&context=nchchip

Dearborn, D. C., L. S. MacDade, S. K. Robinson, A. D. Dowling Fink, and M. L. Fink.  2009.  Offspring development mode and the evolution of brood parasitism.  Behavioral Ecology 20(3):517-524

Fink, A. D., F. R. Thompson, III, and A. A. Tudor.  2006.  Songbird use of regenerating forest, glade, and edge habitat types.  Journal of Wildlife Management 70(1):180-188.  Web access:  http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2006/nc_2006_fink_001.pdf

Woodward, A. A., A. D. Fink, and F. R. Thompson, III.  2001.  Edge effects and ecological traps:  effects on shrubland birds in Missouri.  Journal of Wildlife Management 65(4):668-675.  Web access:  http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2001/nc_2001_Woodward_001.pdf

Contributions to the arts

Cushman, K. C., and A. D. Dowling Fink.  Riveting inferences:  art + science collaboration.  Vespine Gallery and Studios, Chicago, IL, February 8-23, 2008.  Web access:  http://chicagoartsdistrict.org/event_detail.asp?eventid=436

Cushman, K. C., and A. D. Dowling Fink.  Riveting inferences:  art + science collaboration.  Longwood Center for the Visual Arts, Farmville, VA, July 1 - September 6, 2008.  Web access:  http://lcva.longwood.edu/exhibitions/riveting-influences-art-science-collaboration

National Science Foundation grants

Parry, M. L. (PI), E. K. Shanle (co-PI), C. F. Labosier (co-PI), J. D. White (co-PI).  LIFE STEM II:  supporting the growth of STEM professionals through community, mentorship, and interdisciplinary inquiry.  Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) Program Track 2, Award #2130314, $1,499,981.  2021-2027 (A. D. Dowling Fink role as Senior Personnel) 

Dowling Fink, A. D. (PI), N. Jacob (co-PI), M. I. Kelrick (co-PI), and C. G. Reiness (co-PI).  PULSE Ambassadors - creating a national leadership network to accelerate departmental transformation towards Vision and Change.  Research Coordination Networks – Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN UBE) Program, Award #1624182, $499,978.  2016-2021 (with no-cost extension through 2022) 

Parry, M. L. (PI), W. A. Znosko (co-PI), and A. D. Dowling Fink (co-PI).  The LIFE STEM Program:  an interdisciplinary approach to foster the next generation of STEM professionals.  Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) Program Track 1, Award #1564879, $649,932.  2016-2021 (with no-cost extension through 2022) 

Dowling Fink, A. D. (PI), N. Jacob (co-PI), and D. J. Marcey (co-PI).  A vision for change:  using ATP (Ambassador Training Program) to energize departmental transformation.  Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) Program, Award #1355771, $287,186.  2013-2015 (with no-cost extension through 2016) 

Other contributions

Pederson, J., J. Znosko, A. Coleman, J. Cox, A. Dowling Fink, E. Kinman, K. Napier, and P. Poplin.  American Wolf:  A True Story of Obsession in the West (book review).  Science Education and Civic Engagement: An International Journal 11(2):6-7.  Web access:  http://new.seceij.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BookReview.pdf 

Fink, A. D., and M. L. Parry.  2007.  The Power of Water.  The Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) 2007 Course Model Series.  Web access:  http://ncsce.net/the-power-of-water/

Dowling Fink, A. D.  2001.  Prothonotary Warbler.  The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas.  Texas A&M University System, College Station and Corpus Christi, TX

Ryan, M. R., M. L. Fink, and A. D. Dowling.  1997.  Prairie conservation in the Great Plains.  Prairie Naturalist 29(1):67-68