Dr. Audrey A. Vasauskas has a distinguished career in academia, medicine, research leadership, and student formation. She serves as Associate Dean of Research and Associate Professor of Physiology at the Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine, where she is part of the founding faculty and has helped build research programs and student curricula from the ground up. A funded principal investigator with national grant support and an accomplished published scientist, she is deeply committed to intellectual rigor and mentoring the next generation of scholars. Her experience leading science outreach initiatives and student programs reflects her belief that education should cultivate both excellence and character. She brings to the Academy a passion for forming young people holistically — strengthening mind, body, and spirit in pursuit of truth.