Cindy Malone began her scientific career wearing hip-waders in a swamp behind her home in Illinois. She earned her BS in Biology at Illinois State University and her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at UCLA. She continued her post-doctoral work at UCLA in Molecular Genetics. Dr. Malone is currently a distinguished educator and an Associate Professor at California State University, Northridge, where she is the Director of the CSUN-UCLA Bridges to Stem Cell Research Program funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Malone's research is aimed at training undergraduates and masters degree candidates to understand how genes are regulated through genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that alter gene expression. She has been teaching non-majors biology for over 15 years and has won curriculum enhancement and teaching awards at CSUN.