Biography

Dr. Van Cleef-Toedt has extensive experience teaching numerous college biology, anatomy & physiology, and environmental toxicology courses (both for science and non-science majors) at various community colleges and baccalaureate universities in New York and Connecticut. She received her graduate degrees from the Graduate School of Arts and Science, Department of Biology at NYU, specializing in the fields of environmental and aquatic toxicology, environmental carcinogenesis, and general biology, and received the annual departmental Gladys Mateyko Award for Excellence in Biology (1997). Her doctoral thesis research was concerned with characterizing the effects of aquatic cadmium exposure and physiological stress on mRNA expression of the metallothionein gene in killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus). She also received training during graduate school from the American Museum of Natural History, Department of Ichthyology, and the New York University School of Medicine, Department of Environmental Medicine. Her non-academic post-graduate experience has included separate contract work in the Washington DC area for the National Fisheries Service, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Toxicology Program. She has published peer-reviewed research papers in journals including Cell Stress and Chaperones, Environmental Biology of Fishes, and Physiology of Fishes, and co-authored a chemistry textbook entitled "The Chemistry of Everyday Products" (Greenwood Publishers, Greenwich, CT). Her professional memberships include the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of University Women, Association of Women in Science, and Connecticut Community Colleges Association of Biology Teachers. Her interests include music, reading, visiting historical outdoor museums with her family (Mystic Seaport, Sturbridge Village, and Plymouth Plantation).