Associate Professor of Biology, IWU Marion

Dr. Jennifer Noseworthy always knew—on some level at least—that she wanted to enter a profession where she could work with plants.

As a young girl, Noseworthy spent much of her free time hunting for wildflowers in the woods near her house and tending to her family’s garden. That passion took her through a doctoral program in Plant Biology and eventually landed her on IWU’s Biology faculty.

“I was drawn to IWU’s Biology program because it was clear how committed the faculty were to teaching, research and mentoring their students,” said Noseworthy. “My favorite part of teaching is mentoring students in class and the lab, introducing them to new foods to try in lab and simply sharing my love of plants.”

She also continues to delve into groundbreaking research, which is focused on improving specialty vegetable crops—like greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers—to increase nutritional content through improved cultural productions methods. This research, combined with her passion and areas of expertise, has uniquely equipped Noseworthy for the other role she holds as director of the
IWU Alliance Garden.

The Alliance Garden is an educational, small-scale farm located near the IWU residential campus that seeks to train and educate members of the IWU and Grant County communities about sustainable agriculture—a mission that hits close to home for Noseworthy.

“During my childhood, I experienced food insecurity,” said Noseworthy. “My mission at IWU is to work with the community of Marion to address food insecurity through the work I do at the Alliance Garden and with my students in the classroom.”

Under Noseworthy’s leadership, the Alliance Garden received a $25,000 grant from The Boren Foundation and a five-year $500,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). These two grants will fund an outdoor classroom and a USDA Research and Experiences for Undergraduates program at IWU.

“Hunger, lack of access and poor nutrition can be addressed,” said Noseworthy. “We are capable of making positive change.”

Noseworthy holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy in Plant Biology from the University of New Hampshire at Durham. She received her master’s in Horticulture Science from the University of Florida at Gainesville and her bachelor’s in Biology from Gordon College. Noseworthy’s primary research is focused on specialty vegetable crops improvement to increase nutritional content using cultural production methods.