Growing up, Deborah Eastman always wanted to be a medical doctor. That's not surprising, considering she comes from Rochester, Minn., home of the renowned Mayo Clinic.

"For me, to be a doctor was THE way to be a success," she says.

That was her plan when she moved to Iowa to attend Grinnell College, but it was a semester tropical field research program in Costa Rica and a summer research program at Grinnell that interested her in teaching and research. There, she worked in Bruce Voyle's lab studying cell communication in mouse cancer cells.

"That experience drove me into the research field, and at the same time, I really liked the liberal arts emphasis on mentoring, to help students grasp concepts and develop critical thinking skills."

She went on to earn her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and eventually got her first teaching job back at Grinnell, filling in a year for a former professor who had gone on sabbatical. "I liked teaching from the first few days. Seeing how eager the students were to learn excited and inspired me."

Wanting to remain in a liberal arts environment, she accepted her first full-time teaching position at Southwestern in 1998. Beyond classroom teaching, Eastman enjoys the opportunity to serve on the University's Diversity Enrichment Committee, Admissions Committee, and the Committee on International Programs and Experiences.

"I feel very strongly about the study abroad experience. Speaking from personal experience, it's something every student should consider. Unfortunately, science students often seem to have limited possibilities for study abroad because of scheduling and don't take advantage of these opportunities. I hope to encourage more biology majors to explore the possibilities."

She has also helped to develop Southwestern's Biology Summer Research Program, which provides students the chance to work closely in the lab with their professors and affords Eastman the opportunity to get her hands back into her on-going research.

A self-proclaimed "fly person," her research on cell communication has involved studying the Notch signaling pathway in fruit flies. She focuses on the specification of cell fates during development in an effort to gain knowledge about the normal developmental process as well as in determining the mechanism of some developmental disorders.

It was this research that led her to Greece in 1993, where she spent two years doing post-doctoral work at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. "That was a great place to be, with the international culture and the big fly community." She continued her research for two more years at Yale University before leaving to teach at Grinnell.

Just because she thrived in the research environment, Eastman didn't spend her college years locked in a lab 24 hours a day. In her campus office, among all the books and research materials you'd expect to find in a science professor's private space, one object sticks out - a basketball with "792" inked on it. Apparently Eastman was as talented on Grinnell's basketball court as she was in the classroom.

"I got that ball when I became the school's all-time leading scorer," says the former Pioneer star center/forward. She broke the previous record by her junior season (792) and went on to score more than 1,000 points for her career. "The record has been broken since then, and now I think I'm down to number five." She also competed in cross-country, and ran four marathons while in grad school. "When I was running, (SU cross-country coach) Francie Larrieu Smith was my idol, and now she's my colleague! I still get this tingly feeling when I talk to her."

Eastman is married to Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy Peter Gottschalk, whom she met tubing on the San Gabriel River during the summer of 1998. The couple wed last July and flew to New Zealand in late December for their honeymoon. They have a daughter, Ariadne, who was born just a mile away from Knossos in Greece and named after the daughter of King Minos.