Remembering Dr. Joann Otto

04-16-2024

Dr. Joann Otto began her career as a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences in 1979. Over the next 25 years, she developed both her research career as a cell biologist interested in the cytoskeleton and as a valued mentor to undergraduate students,  graduate students and also faculty members in the broad Purdue University community.  She was recognized within the Department by the Chiscon Teaching Award, and at the University level by inclusion in the Book of Great Teachers and the Violet Haas Award. Joann served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Science from 2003-2004.

Some of Joann’s research involved the dynamics of cytoskeletal structures in oocytes/ova of starfish and sea urchins. For this purpose, she spent summers doing research at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Marine Laboratory. As a native Oregonian, she loved that region and in 2004 she left Purdue to become Chair of the Biology Department at Western Washington University in Bellingham.  She ‘retired’ from administrative duties in 2016 to devote herself fully to advancing undergraduate education through the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE). She obtained external funding for these efforts from the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and had been a national leader in those efforts for the past 10 years.

Joann’s time each summer at Friday Harbor Labs gave her a deep connection to the San Juan Islands. She had a residence there for 25 years. She avidly hiked and viewed wildlife, ranging from insects to orcas. She became personally involved in the San Juan Preservation Trust to implement mechanisms for preserving habitat in a way that the public could access ecologically important systems. 

The family contact for cards, letters and memories of Joann is her brother, Len Otto, who can be reached at the address below: Len Otto, 37160 SE Lusted Road, Boring, OR 97009-9706