Mary Munson, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion, Biochemistry & Molecular Biotechnology; Associate Vice Provost for Equity in Science, Office of Health Equity; co-leader of the Investigator Career Advancement Program (iCAP); President of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) for 2025; Co-investigator for the ASCB MOSAIC Program; Faculty Advisor, UMass Chan-SACNAS student chapter
Office location: LRB 905
Lab location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-8318
Biography:
Mary Munson was a double major in Chemistry and Biology at Washington University (St. Louis), receiving her bachelor's degree in 1989. In 1996, she received her Ph.D. from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, where she was awarded both American Heart Association and NIH postdoctoral fellowships. She joined the faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology in 2001. The lab is highly collaborative and currently supported by R35 funding from NIGMS for her exocytosis research and funding from NIAID for the VPS45 project. In 2015, she was awarded the inaugural Bassick Family Worcester Foundation Award for her nuclear export project.
In addition to her passion for research, she is committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in academia, as well as training and mentoring the next generations of outstanding scientists. In recognition of her work in these areas, she received the 2022 Chancellor's Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion (link), and was appointed as Vice Chair for Diversity in BMB, and as the Assistant Vice Provost in the Office of Health Equity. In 2023, she was awarded the Women's Faculty Committee Outstanding Mentoring to Women Faculty Award (link). In 2024, she was awarded the Association for Women in Science (AWIS)'s Zenith Award.
She is the current faculty advisor for the student SACNAS chapter. She is a leader of the Diversity Action committee in the BMB department, where the new departmental Diversity-Equity Action Plan is being developed. She also organized and leads the GSBS Faculty Focused on Inclusive Excellence (FFIE) community, to engage and educate GSBS faculty to promote diversity, equity and inclusion on our campus, in our labs, and in our broader scientific communities. She is a Trained Facilitator for “Entering Mentoring,” a program sponsored by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) to enable her to be a strong and supportive mentor and trainer to enhance mentoring and support mentees to reach their full potentials in exciting and successful scientific careers. She is also a trained facilitator for Restorative Justice.
She is a co-leader for the Investigator Career Advancement Program for fostering the success of our tenure-track junior faculty (iCAP). She is also the recipient of several Dean’s awards for her outstanding contributions to curriculum development and student mentoring over the years.
She is currently the ASCB President for 2025 and a co-investigator of the ASCB’s AMP MOSAIC program for select K99/R00 scholars. She was elected in 2022 as a Fellow of the ASCB, and as a AAAS Fellow in 2023.