Dr. Rebecca Tart

Biology professor to be the Lenoir-Rhyne Summer Commencement Speaker

Dr. Rebecca Tart, recipient of the 2006 Raymond M. Bost Distinguished Professor Award at Lenoir-Rhyne College, will deliver the college’s summer commencement address Aug. 4. The commencement exercises will be held at 7 p.m. in P.E. Monroe Auditorium

The Raymond M. Bost Distinguished Professor Award is given each year to recognize and encourage outstanding teaching and scholarship. This award is named for the seventh president of Lenoir-Rhyne and is presented to a faculty member who has demonstrated the most complete dedication to effective teaching and to the academic and personal welfare of students.

Tart is associate professor of biology at the college. She received her bachelor’s degree in zoology from North Carolina State University in 1983 and her doctorate in microbiology and immunology from Wake Forest University in 1993. While in graduate school, she worked as a medical microbiology lab instructor and lab coordinator at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. She was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Bacterial Pathogenesis Laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1994 to 1996.

Before joining the L-R faculty in 1999, she was assistant professor of biology at Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C., and adjunct biology instructor at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, N.C.

Her students describe her as a professor who truly cares about her students. She has dedicated her daily life to supporting and encouraging students. In one student’s words, “Time is not an obstacle for Dr. T; she is the most committed faculty member I know.” Another wrote, “She gets up early and stays up late because her students seem to always come first.” Tart arranges field trips to make sure her students have access to a variety of modern technologies. She is the Outdoor Adventure Club advisor, and has accompanied OAC members on rafting trips and stargazing adventures. Tart has also given inspirational talks at Christian organizations meeting on campus.

She is married to D. Mark Tart, P.E., and is the mother of Anne H. Tart, Ph.D.

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