Virginia Balke received a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry from San Francisco State University where she did undergraduate research on tetraphenylporphyrins. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been an instructor at Delaware Technical Community College for 16 years and teaches Biology, Microbiology, Biotechnology, and Research Methodology. Four years ago, Virginia developed the undergraduate research program at DTCC. Her students are undertaking a variety of projects including characterization of soil microbes, microscopy of white nose syndrome, and genetic and behavioral studies of big brown bats. She is collaborating with several professors at the University of Delaware and Delaware State University. Virginia has brought the research into several of her courses with case studies and custom labs. Virginia is PI on an NSF ATE grant. She is also a PI on the Delaware INBRE grant and is a member of the Bioinformatics Network of Delaware Steering Committee.