Erin McKenney

Bio

Education

Ph.D., Duke University
M.S., North Carolina State University

Resources

• CV
• Teaching Philosophy
• Personal Statement

Research Interests

I cultivate critical thinking through active learning. Students are not limited by access to content; I focus, instead, on practicing current techniques to collect and analyze novel datasets. By designing my courses around authentic research experiences, I encourage student autonomy and foster practicing scientists.  Across my courses, I implement teaching approaches rooted in SOTL research. I aim to dispel the various stereotype threats surrounding (and amplified by) the “ivory tower”, empowering students and the public with scientific literacy. My broader impacts and outreach include scholarly efforts to build reciprocal, collaborative, long-lasting partnerships with students as well as the public.

In addition to education, I study how microbial communities form over time and how they adapt to their environments. My research incorporates microbial ecology, nutrition, and comparative gut morphology to learn how gut microbes affect health – and how humans can leverage or upset that balance. For over a decade I have investigated evolutionary adaptation across scales and species, between non-human primates and carnivores and their gut microbes. More recently, I’ve expanded my research to sourdough and other fermented foods that can be studied without laboratory equipment, using citizen science research to empower students of all ages and all over the world.

Publications

• African carnivore gut bacterial diversity and composition are associated with sample condition but not storage technique , Research Square (2026)
• African carnivore gut bacterial diversity and composition are associated with sample condition but not storage technique , Animal Microbiome (2026)
• Data from: Gut site and sex-specific enrichment of bacterial taxa and predicted metabolic pathways in wild American black bear (Ursus americanus) , DRYAD (2026)
• Gut site and sex-specific enrichment of bacterial taxa and predicted metabolic pathways in wild American black bear (Ursus americanus) , PLoS ONE (2026)
• Already open! , North Carolina State University Libraries eBooks (2025)
• Approaches to Open Pedagogy: A Guide for Practitioners , North Carolina State University Libraries eBooks (2025)
• Cooking-class style fermentation as a context for co-created science and engagement , Microbiology Spectrum (2025)
• Future opportunities… , North Carolina State University Libraries eBooks (2025)
• Interspecific variation in gut microbiome diversity across the Etosha National Park herbivore community , PLoS ONE (2025)
• Open Pedagogy in the Applied Ecology Curriculum , North Carolina State University Libraries eBooks (2025)