Mary Coughter is a PhD Candidate in Integrative Life Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University under the advisory of Dr. Rima Franklin. She also holds her master’s degree in Biology at VCU, and her bachelor’s at Virginia Tech in Environmental Science. Located in Richmond, Virginia, her current research takes place in the James River, a huge resource of food, water, and recreation in the area as well as a tributary to the Chesapeake bay. Here she examines the spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and their genes in these public waterways, looking at different communities of bacteria as resistance reservoirs – both the water column and riverine biofilms. Based in a city historically known for redlining communities and where environmental stressors and adverse health impacts have been observed along those lines, she’s very interested in exploring if antibiotic prescription rates along communities in the watershed follow similar patterns. 

Her student page is here.