Erica Wehrwein named American Physiological Society Fellow

Michigan State University’s Erica Wehrwein has been inducted into the 2024 fellowship class of the American Physiological Society (APS). Given for outstanding leadership and contributions to the field and the APS, becoming a fellow is the Society’s highest honor. Wehrwein is only the second person in the long history of the Department of Physiology to receive this honor and may be the only fixed term teaching faculty ever chosen as a fellow.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be elected a fellow,” said Wehrwein, “It has been wonderful to build a career worthy of this recognition while at MSU in the College of Natural Science. Having the space to have the conversations and to raise the bar for everyone is a beautiful thing.”

Founded in 1887, The American Physiological Society is a multidisciplinary community of roughly 10,000 with the mission of “empowering scientists to understand life and improve health by advancing and communicating discoveries in physiology and medicine.”

“This is an awesome recognition. Congratulations to Erica on this remarkable and much deserved achievement,” said Phillip Duxbury, Dean of The College of Natural Science.

As an integrative physiologist, Wehrwein thinks about how all the systems in the human body work together and how people are more than just their physiology. She specializes in the autonomic nervous system and how it interacts with blood pressure control. In addition to teaching courses at MSU’s Medical School, Wehrwein is largely responsible for the Physiology Department’s capstone experience in physiology — a laboratory course where students also design their own projects. She focuses primarily on teaching and mentoring and conducts a little research.

When Wehrwein took over as chair of the Physiology’s Undergraduate Program and Curriculum Committee, she began asking questions and benchmarking MSU’s program against those at other schools. What started off as a simple question —were we doing a good job in the classroom— led to a national inquiry into whether they were doing the best they could for students in MSU’s bachelor’s degree program.  To answer these questions, Wehrwein sought out national standards and guidelines for the program, but learned they didn’t exist.

This realization led Wehrwein to reach out to physiologists at other schools and, in 2017, she launched a new society called the Physiology Majors Interest Group. Wehrwein and her colleagues were not only building a new community, they were writing national standards for the program.

Wehrwein’s work with the Physiology Majors Interest Group launched the national conversation and led the American Physiological Society to approach her to build a National Center for Physiology Education within the Society. With Wehrwein’s guidance, the Center launched around a year ago.

Historically, fellows have been chosen based on their research and grant productivity.

By honoring Wehrwein as a fellow, APS is placing value in her educational work and programmatic metrics.

“I might be the only one not in the tenure system who focuses on education rather than research who’s been recognized as an APS fellow,” Wehrwein said. “It says a lot about where priorities are shifting in universities, higher ed, and professional societies. I hope that is a good sign for the future for others.”

In addition to working at MSU and her national leadership positions, Wehrwein contributes to a wellness blog for the general public about simple life interventions like meditation, the power of smiling, gratitude journaling, and nature. Everything she does leads her full circle, right back into her classroom, where she can continue to implement new learnings and improve her students’ experiences.