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Theresa M. Koehler, Ph.D., is Chair Emerita of the Department of °®¶¹´«Ã½ and Molecular Genetics at McGovern Medical School, University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center. As part of the ASM leadership team, Koehler is enthusiastic about implementing ASM’s Strategic Roadmap, which is designed to empower microbial scientists to shape the field, connect global stakeholders and ensure the societal impact of the microbial sciences. She is also committed to enhancing membership engagement as ASM moves forward in its many missions as one of the most impactful professional scientific societies in the world.

Koehler earned a B.S. at Virginia Tech in biology and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in microbiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Following postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, Koehler joined the newly-formed Department of °®¶¹´«Ã½ at the Univ. of Texas–Houston Medical School (now McGovern Medical School) as an assistant professor. She served as professor and chair of the department from 2011-2022.

Koehler is an internationally recognized anthrax expert, and her NIH-funded research program on Bacillus anthracis spanned more than 30 years. She is a fellow of the American Academy of °®¶¹´«Ã½ and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Koehler’s NIH service has included chairing the bacterial pathogenesis study section and membership and chair positions on several special emphasis grant review panels. She has chaired numerous national and international scientific conferences and served on the editorial board of multiple journals. Koehler served as President of the Association of Medical School °®¶¹´«Ã½ and Immunology Chairs, and she has been a member of several advisory boards for state and federal science committees, including the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. Throughout her career, Koehler has been passionate about graduate student, medical student and postdoctoral fellow training. She served as the Director of an NIH T32 training grant and is an awardee of the Paul E. Darlington Award from the M.D. Anderson UTHealth Graduate School for Biomedical Sciences for outstanding mentoring of graduate students.