B.A. – Biological Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York
M.A. – Biological Sciences, subprogram Plant Science, Lehman College, City University of New York
Ph.D. – Biological Sciences, subprogram Plant Science, Graduate Center, City University of New York

Dr. Alvarez joined the faculty at Dominican University in August 2017. She teaches General Biology, Ecology and Botany, among other courses. Prior to teaching at Dominican, she taught for the City University of New York. Before coming to academia, she worked for 19 years for the Central Park Conservancy, the managers of Central Park in New York City. She started as a gardener and worked her way up to Director of Horticulture and Woodland Management. Her focus was on native plants and ecological restoration. Her research focuses on the flora and ecology of urban environments. Dr. Alvarez is also an instructor of botany at the New York Botanical Garden, where she teaches Plant Physiology, Plant Morphology and Introduction to Plant Science.

B.S. – Chemistry/Biology: Ouachita Baptist University
M.S. – Organic Chemistry: University of Missouri
Ph.D. – Higher Education: Seton Hall University

Professor Colleen Evans joined the Science Department as an adjunct professor in 2003, became an instructor in Chemistry in the Science Department in 2007 and was promoted to assistant professor of Chemistry in 2015. Professor Evans has taught General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Analytical Chemistry courses. 

Professor Evans’ research interests are focused on developing new and general synthetic organic methods for use in the design of novel compounds of biological and medicinal interest. The main current emphasis is twofold: 1) the application of selective thionation reactions to compounds of biological interest such as heterocyclic compounds and short peptides and 2) the development of novel thionating agents that are selective and practical for use in a wide variety of synthetic transformations. Professor Evans has also educational research interests which include retention of science students at the undergraduate level, exploration of innovative teaching methods and curriculum design to enhance the learning experience of science students, and increasing the number of science majors who become middle school and high school science teachers

One avenue of thionation reactions has been applied to serotonin receptors HTR1A/2 partial agonist/antagonist small molecules such as the clinical candidate adatanserin which led to the discovery of a novel agent thioadatanserin with EC₅₀ of 6.7 nM against 5-HTR1A and IC₅₀ of 62.3 nM against 5HTR2A as a potential agent for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. Thioadatanserin was further modified by a novel tandem dialkylation reaction giving unexpected analogues.  The structure of one analogue was determined using X- ray single structure crystallography.

In another project, research is being carried out with our undergraduate research students to discover covalent peptidomimetic inhibitors of calpain enzymes as potential treatment of diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

Recently, she discovered a novel thionating agent which was termed TMPT whose X-ray crystal structure indicates high degree of symmetry that may be useful in achieving desired selectivity in thionation reaction. The scope of this novel thionating agent is being actively investigated.

Professor Evans spearheaded the curricular design and implementation of the new chemistry minor which was first offered in 2015. She has also served on the curriculum committee, freshman directorate, and adhoc committee charged with developing College-wide Educational Goals and Learning Objectives. As a coordinator of Science Department Seminar Series (2012-2015) she brought scientists from diverse disciplines to campus to speak and meet with Dominican University students.  Currently, she is the Chairperson of the Dominican University Institutional Review Board. 

Prior to joining Dominican University, Professor Evans’ scientific career started in 1984 as a synthetic chemist in the Agricultural Products Department at E. I. Dupont de Nemours (Wilmington, DE) working on the important class of sulfonyl ureas herbicides.  In 1987, she then joined the Medicinal Chemistry Department of BioChem Pharma (Quebec, Canada) as a research scientist and was involved in the discovery of Epivir licensed for the treatment of AIDS and hepatitis B infections.

Professor Evans is a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship – Kiel, West Germany (1980-1981) and co-recipient of Prix-Galien Research Award (1996)