Dr. Cassidy Johnson is a biologist and local conservation practitioner with years of experience as both a classroom and outdoor educator. As a Teaching Professor for Rice Biosciences, she teaches a range of undergraduate courses, including non-majors biology, immunology, experimental biosciences, labs in conservation biology and plant diversity, and a community-of-practice ecological education field course. She is also a lecturer for Rice’s Glasscock School Master of Interdisciplinary Studies program. Before coming to Rice, she taught biology at Houston City College where she designed novel, experiential learning opportunities for students as HCC West Houston Institute Faculty Innovation Fellow. She also served as a Houston toad specialist for the Houston Zoo's ex situ Houston toad conservation program and was president of a local, conservation education non-profit, the Coastal Prairie Partnership. Dr. Johnson earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Cell Biology from Rice University, where she studied metabotropic glutamate receptor signaling in the Drosophila motor neuron.
Dr. Johnson is the first Director of Rice's Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum, which encompasses the university's 300-acre campus. The mission of the Arboretum is to support the institution’s educational initiatives and to connect the Rice community to the natural world. To this end, Dr. Johnson organizes collaborative events with departments and community partners and assists with the coordination of faculty research projects that engage the Arboretum. She is also working closely with the Arboretum Committee and Rice’s Grounds team to restore three native ecosystems, a wetland, woodland, and coastal prairie, in the 5.5-acre Rice University Nature Preserve (formerly the Harris Gully Natural Area).
Dr. Johnson’s research includes the long-term biodiversity monitoring of the Rice University Nature Preserve. She is also working collaboratively on the establishment of a digital herbarium with Fondren Library, the propagation of rare and endangered plants with Rice’s Director of Grounds, Brent Moon, and the development of an environmental DNA (eDNA) probe with Dr. Jamie Catanese’s Intermediate Experimental Biosciences course (BIOS 211). She also oversees Rice’s student Audubon “Lights Out Program” survey team.