Christine Pfund, Ph.D., is a senior scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Pfund earned her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology, followed by postdoctoral research in Plant Pathology, both at the UW–Madison.
From 2003-2013, Pfund served as the Associate Director of the Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning, helping to train future faculty to become better, more effective teachers. She now conducts research with several programs across the UW campus, including the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and the Center for Women’s Health Research (CWHR).
Pfund’s work focuses on developing, implementing, documenting, and studying a seminar to train research mentors across science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). She has co-authored a manual for facilitators of this seminar, Entering Mentoring, and co-authored several papers documenting the effectiveness of this approach.
Currently, Pfund co-leads two studies focused on the impact of training on both mentors and mentees and understanding specific factors in mentoring relationships that account for positive student outcomes, including the role of culture.
Pfund is the principal investigator of the NIH-funded National Research Mentoring Network Coordination Center. She is also director of the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) and the Deputy Director of WCER.