Margaret (Peg) Riley is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard and served on the faculty at Yale until she moved to UMass in 2012. Peg's research focuses on the evolution of antibiotic resistance and the use of ecological approaches to drug discovery. She is one of the pioneers of narrow spectrum antimicrobials, which provide novel solutions to the global challenge of antibiotic resistance. Dr. Riley is also known for her efforts to increase civic science literacy leading to the creation of the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences in 2007. She has also appeared on several of Bill Nye's shows and podcasts. Most recently, she created the NSF grant-funded STEM Ambassadors Program, whose mission is to build a supportive and diverse community of STEM scholars at the college level. Her program has resulted in improved outcomes for over 250 students at UMass Amherst and she is now poised to bring this program's tenets to a wider audience of STEM faculty, university administrators, and leaders in STEM industries and funding agencies.
