Education

• PhD, Genetics, University of Iowa
• BSE, Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa

About

Dr. Danielle Rudd was named Mount Mercy University’s Dean of Students in June 2023. She leads the Student Services team and is responsible for supporting programs, student persistence efforts and outcomes, and the student experience beyond the classroom.

Prior to this role, Dr. Rudd was a full-time faculty member at Mount Mercy since 2016, where she served as an Assistant Professor of Biology and was granted tenure in Fall 2022. Most recently, Dr. Rudd was the Faculty Athletic Representative and Title IX Deputy Coordinator for students. She has also been active in student co-curricular life, campus committees, and advising registered student organizations over the past several years.

Dr. Rudd completed her undergraduate studies with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Iowa in 2003. She then went on to earn her Doctorate in Genetics through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics in 2014, also at the University of Iowa. Her thesis, Genomic Copy Number Variation in Schizophrenia, focused on identifying large deletions and duplications in the human genome that are associated with schizophrenia.

After earning her PhD, Dr. Rudd was a Post-doctoral Research Scientist at the VA Iowa City Healthcare System, where she studied the impact of traumatic brain injury on the visual system. She then became an adjunct instructor at Mount Mercy while also teaching bioinformatics and nutrition as an adjunct instructor at Kirkwood Community College.

In her spare time, Dr. Rudd enjoys cooking, crafting, reading, and spending time with her family.