Lynn University

Gary Villa started his studies as a Russian linguist in military intelligence in the U.S. Army. He studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California. After leaving the Army, he worked for five years as a police officer. During that time Villa also started his undergraduate education at the University of Missouri, earning a B.A. in Russian area studies and a B.S. in biological sciences. He was then accepted into a Ph.D. program in biological sciences at Stanford University. Villa completed his Ph.D. in marine biology and molecular evolution under Dennis Powers, Ph.D., at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, CA. During this time he was also heavily involved as a teaching assistant with the courses at Hopkins, particularly the subtidal communities and underwater research courses, for which he won Stanford's Excellence in Teaching Award.

Upon completing his Ph.D., Villa was hired at the University of California, Irvine, under an innovative program in which the students picked four areas in which the school did not offer courses, and hired faculty to design and teach upper-division courses in those areas. He was chosen to design and teach eight courses in marine biology a year and was there for two years. After leaving UCI, Villa taught at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton for two years, focusing primarily on the introductory majors’ courses, but also teaching upper-division and graduate courses in genetics and evolutionary theory.

In 2002, Villa was offered a position at Lynn University as an associate professor of biology. Currently he teaches all biology courses not dealing with human biology, as well as forensic science courses. He is also the director of the Honors Program at Lynn.

Education

• B.A., University of Missouri
• B.S., University of Missouri
• Ph.D., Stanford University