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Morgan's Science Journey

Morgan didn't always know she wanted to be a researcher. She dreamt of becoming a neurosurgeon from the time she was 12! She started doing research when she was 17, and it began as a way to beef up her medical school applications. But, in her first lab, she discovered a passion for neuroscience and loved getting to work with astrocytes, cells in the brain named after the way they look like stars. But she still had her eyes set on medical school. When she began her undergraduate education at Oklahoma State University, she joined a lab studying oxytocin and vasopressin in mice. Oxytocin is commonly known as "the love hormone", but to Morgan it is so much more. During her time in that lab, she began working on her medical school applications and even took the MCAT! It was while writing her personal statement that she discovered all she could focus on was her research, not her shadowing experience or leadership in pre-med clubs. It became clear to her (and her therapist) that her true love was neuroscience research. Once she graduated from OSU with two bachelor's degrees (Biology and Physiology), she got a position as a lab tech and began seriously considering pursuing a Ph.D.

Morgan began her Neuroscience Ph.D. program in August 2020. Needless to say, the first 2 years were not a "normal" grad school experience. During graduate school, Morgan studied how stress impacts learning, with a specific emphasis on female subjects. She worked in the lab of Dr. Matthew Wanat, which studies learning, motivation, and substance use disorder. Morgan's thesis work touched on many aspects of neuroscience, including pharmacology (related to CRF, estradiol, and dopamine), chemogenetics, stress-related changes to the brain, and behavior. She ultimately graduated with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in May 2025!

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During her graduate work, Dr. Morgan created many opportunities to practice teaching, from filling in for professors while they were at conferences to creating AskANeuroscientist. She even had an amazing opportunity to present a professional development workshop during the Winter Conference on Brain Research (2025). Through these experiences, she recognized that teaching the next generation of scientists is her true passion. Rather than continuing on in research, she began searching for teaching positions at undergraduate universities. Morgan (Ph.D.) is currently a Lecturer at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches neuroscience courses.