Meredith Akins, Ph.D. is a Fort Smith native. She graduated with a B.A. in Biology from Austin College in Sherman, Texas and earned her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She has served as an Associate Professor and Department Head of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Physiology, in the department of Pathophysiology at ARCOM. Meredith is a reproductive physiologist, who during her graduate and postdoctoral work, studied the molecular mechanisms of cervical ripening during pregnancy, parturition, and preterm birth, as well as novel methods to assess collagen restructuring in the cervix to predict preterm pregnancy using second harmonic generation microscopy. She has published her work in journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Endocrinology.

Education

• B.A. in Biology from Austin College
• Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Areas of Expertise/Interest

• Physiology
• Anatomy
• Reproductive Biology