Carli Poisson began her career in neuroscience at Wesleyan University performing research on how the central amygdala contributes to addictive behaviors in rats. After graduating, she moved to Minneapolis and started her doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, where she was a member of the Medical Discovery Team in Addiction research. She did her thesis work in the lab of Benjamin Saunders. For her dissertation, Dr. Poisson studied how a subcortical region of the brain called the superior colliculus was able to rapidly excite dopamine neurons and change how rats behave in learning tasks. During her PhD, she discovered a love of teaching via her instruction of a human neuroanatomy course taught at Macalester College. She received her PhD in neuroscience in the summer of 2024 before joining Wesleyan University as visiting faculty in the psychology department with a focus on mentoring and education. She has experience teaching a variety of neuroscience specialties including addiction, anatomy, statistics, development, and learning. No matter the course, Dr. Poisson believes in fostering every student's curiosity through exploration and discussion. She asks her students to challenge their assumptions about the brain and to grow their skills as scientists.

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