Dr. Carol M. Anelli, professor in the Department of Entomology and the Honors & Scholars Program at the Ohio State University (OSU), was elected ESA Fellow in 2020. Anelli is known for her leadership in teaching and pedagogy and her contributions to the history of entomology. She has been extensively recognized for her teaching excellence.
Anelli grew up in Waterbury, Connecticut, spending many childhood days in the woods and meadows around her home. The natural environs sparked her interest in insects, as did the caterpillars she found nearby and in her father's garden, which she reared to adulthood in her mother's canning jars. Anelli earned her B.A. degree in biology from Southern Connecticut State University. After four years as a research technician at Yale University Medical School, she entered graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), earning her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees under the patient tutelage of Dr. Stanley Friedman. As a teaching assistant at UIUC, Anelli was frequently named on the List of Teachers Rated Excellent by Their Students. After two postdoctoral positions at USDA–ARS in Beltsville, Maryland, and another at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, she accepted a position as assistant professor in the Biology Department at the University of Scranton, but soon joined the entomology faculty at Washington State University (WSU), Pullman, where she advanced to full professor. As inaugural chair of WSU President's Teaching Academy, she worked with Academy members, upper administration, and Faculty Senate leadership to elevate the professionalism of teaching and transform WSU's general education program. She presented the 2009 WSU convocation keynote address and was honored with the Faculty Library Excellence Award, the Marian E. Smith Achievement Award for meritorious teaching, and the Sahlin Award for instruction, WSU's highest teaching award. She served as Faculty Fellow in the Office of Assessment of Teaching and Learning, Honors College thesis director, and Honors College associate dean. In 2013, Anelli became professor and associate chair of entomology at OSU and subsequently served as interim chair of the department for more than three years.
Anelli received ESA's Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching in 2009 and, having been nominated by ESA's Early Career Professional Committee, presented the 2017 ESA Founders' Memorial Lecture honoring Anna Botsford Comstock, making ESA history as both parties were female. She has served ESA as a two-term member of the Governing Board, Governing Board Executive Committee member, chair of Section B, program co-chair, and in various committee assignments.
During her career, Anelli has developed and taught numerous courses for undergraduate nonscience and science majors and graduate students. Her courses are often interdisciplinary, drawing on the arts and humanities, and she has co-instructed with colleagues from history, English, music, philosophy, and political science. Currently she teaches general education courses in entomology, scientific literacy, a study abroad course on Darwin and evolution, and a graduate course on the history of biology and contemporary issues in science.
(updated September 2020)