Brett R. Schofield, Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Schofield heads the Schofield Lab. In addition to being a principal investigator, he teaches Medical Neuroscience to medical and graduate students at NEOMED. He has over 40 years’ experience using tract-tracing and immunohistochemical techniques to investigate the neuroanatomy and neuromodulation of the auditory brain.
Email: bschofie@neomed.edu
Nichole L. Beebe, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Beebe is involved in grant writing, experimental design, and data collection and analysis within the lab. She has worked on numerous projects, including subtyping of GABAergic cells in the inferior colliculus and the development of a normal-hearing line of ChAT-Cre mice.
Email: nbeebe@neomed.edu
William A. Noftz, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Noftz is involved in experimental design, data collection, and data analysis in the lab. He has worked on a number of projects, including the identification of cholinergic inputs to the inferior colliculus.
Colleen S. Sowick
Research Associate
Ms. Sowick provides expert technical assistance for the Schofield lab, including cutting and staining of brain tissue and management of supplies and equipment.
Cara Bunner
Senior Research Assistant
Ms. Bunner provides technical assistance in the Schofield lab, including cutting and staining of brain tissue, and work with research animals.
Heather Smith, M.A.
PhD Student
Mrs. Smith is currently pursuing her PhD in the Raghanti Lab at Kent State University and has a BM in violin performance and a MA in experimental archaeology. She is working with the Schofield Lab on a project examining collateralization of projections to the ventral tegmental area and inferior colliculus. Her research interests include the evolution of language as studied through the interaction of the reward pathway and the auditory system. She also studies bio-cultural evolution through ancient soundscapes.
Emily Echols
Undergraduate Student
Ms. Echols is a Biomedical Sciences major at The University of Akron participating in the Tiered Mentoring Program. She is currently working with Dr. Noftz to characterize cholinergic inputs to the inferior colliculus. After graduation she hopes to attend medical school.
Mariya Kiani
Undergraduate Student
Ms. Kiani is a Biomedical Sciences major, with a minor in Bioethics, at The University of Akron. She is participating in the Tiered Mentoring Program and is currently working with Dr. Beebe to analyze (NPY)-ergic cells in the inferior colliculus. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in medicine or biomedical research.
Rhea Mehta
Summer Research Fellow
Ms. Mehta is a rising M2 student at NEOMED. She is currently working on validation of a new transgenic mouse line that expresses cre recombinase in cholinergic cells.
Megan Fritz
Summer Research Fellow, 2021
Summer Research Intern, 2022
Ms. Fritz is a rising M3 student at NEOMED. She is currently analyzing collateral projections from within the inferior colliculus. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in pediatric neurology or surgery.
We collaborate with numerous labs. See more information about our current collaborators here.
When we’re not talking science, our pets are a common topic. See pictures here.
Previous Lab Members
Postdocs:
Kyle T. Nakamoto, Ph.D.
Jeffrey Mellott, Ph.D.
Graduate students:
Diana Coomes Peterson (Ph.D. 2004)
Susan Motts (Ph.D. 2010)
Nichole Beebe (Ph.D. 2016)
William Noftz (Ph.D. 2020)
Medical students:
Wyatt Wollman
Steve Lowe
Ragavi Lanka
Ryan Edelbrock
Dominique Cox
Undergraduate students:
Thomas Tran
Scott Perkins
Jeffrey Krsnak
Ryan Schofield
Kristen Sorensen LaFond
Andrew Ohl
High School students:
Gina Ann Good Crow
Andrew Ohl
Technical Staff:
Arkadiusz Slusarczyk
Megan Storey-Workley
Pooyan Mirjalili
Nina Lenkey
Arian Sajjady
The Schofield Lab 