Staff Spotlight

03/26/2019

The spotlight recognizes and celebrates achievements and contributions staff make to the successful operation of the college. This is an opportunity to acknowledge the dedication and exemplary performance of individuals that deserve special recognition.

Betsy Angeli contributes to the Department of Biology and SLU in a variety of ways. She has the opportunity to work with numerous faculty members in her department each semester. She provides them with support for teaching labs, and helps them bring lab to life (sometimes literally). This may include ordering supplies, setting up and maintaining equipment, brainstorming lab protocols, organizing each lab room, setting up supplies each week, maintaining living organisms, and making solutions (chemical or other) for their course. No two days are the same, which she says she really enjoys. 

Angeli provides hands-on lab experience for undergraduates from a variety of departments by overseeing teaching assistant jobs in labs. One of her favorite parts about her job is getting to know the students, learning about their ambitions for the future, and seeing them succeed at SLU.  Although she doesn't directly supervise graduate students, many of them assist faculty in their teaching labs so, even if it’s only in a small way, Angeli gets to be part of their teaching experience, which she takes very seriously. She tries to provide them with all the tools they need to help faculty plan a meaningful lab experience for their students.

"I often feel like the department staff help contribute to my workday, more than the other way around, but nevertheless, I try to help them whenever I can. It’s great to work in a place with people you know will have your back whenever you ask. I feel very fortunate that we have friendly working relationships, and often come together as a team to support the faculty and students in Biology," she said.

Jack Kennell, Department Chair of Biology, said, “Betsy is responsible for coordinating the preparations and supervising graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants for over a dozen laboratory courses. She also makes preparations for courses at our Reis Biological Station. Due to departmental needs, her duties grew over the years to include the supervision of the laboratory component of a large, non-majors introductory course that we provided to majors in the Doisy College of Health Sciences.  This is an enormous task and one that demands a great deal of knowledge and skill, both in understanding course content and in building and maintaining interpersonal relationships with faculty instructors and TAs. Betsy also went above and beyond her duties in helping the Department of Biology recover from the Macelwane fire. It is difficult to express in words the gratitude that we have for her efforts in supporting the faculty, staff, and students in the department. Betsy took on the leadership role in ordering equipment and supplies to deliver lab courses in the Biology Extension Building (BEB) and was the key person who coordinated the relocation of our 10 teaching labs back to Macelwane. Without her efforts, we would have had to cancel several lab courses in the Fall of 2017, and would not have been able to deliver our upper division lab courses this semester. On a personal level, Betsy is warm, caring, and someone who has a deep desire to help others. She is compassionate about serving our students and truly lives the mission of the department and university."

Angeli grew up in St. Louis and is an alumnus of Rosati-Kain High School. She received a B.S. in Biology from Missouri State University and then came to Saint Louis University to pursue a graduate degree in biology. In 2009, she graduated with an M.S. in Biology. She returned to SLU in 2010 after working at the Humane Society of Missouri. Betsy and her husband have two children, Gus who is three and Helen who is 19 months.  With two toddlers at home, her current hobbies include searching for and watching every version of Baby Shark that the Internet has to offer, doing non-stop laundry, having tea and cake with dinosaurs and woodland creatures, building tracks for cars and trains, hunting for dragons, and occasionally wandering aimlessly around Target. Other hobbies include bowling, running, bird watching, exploring the outdoors, and spending time with her extended family.