The University of Vermont College of Medicine is saddened by the loss of longtime faculty member Paula Fives-Taylor, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and molecular genetics emerita, who passed away on January 28, 2015.
A prolific scientist with a national reputation as a preeminent researcher in the field of microbiology, Fives-Taylor's service to the scientific community began long before her 35-year tenure as a UVM faculty member, when she was a Dominican nun named Dorothy Marie teaching high school science in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. During those years, she served on the New York City Science Council and was a science curriculum consultant for New York City.
She began her UVM career as a graduate student, earning her Ph.D. in 1974, developing a passion for studying bacterial-host cell interactions and becoming an expert in research on the link between dental plaque and disease. A pioneer in this field, her laboratory was the first to demonstrate invasion of epithelial cells by a periodontal organism. Her research excellence led to 23 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health, including a prestigious 10-year NIH MERIT Award, and service on the NIH Oral Biology and Medicine Study Sections and National Institutes of Dental Research National Advisory Council.
Teaching continued to play as large a part as research and service throughout Fives-Taylor’s career, earning her numerous awards, including UVM’s prestigious Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 1999 and being named the first recipient of the UVM Vogelmann Award for Sustained Excellence in Research and Scholarship in 2002. Her research honors were equally impressive. In addition to being named a UVM University Scholar in 1989, she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology in 2004 and received a 2002 International Research in Oral Biology Award. In addition, she served nationally as a member of the National Institutes of Dental Research (IADR) National Advisory Council and the National Institutes of Health Oral Biology and Medicine Study Section. In addition, she served as president of the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering and as a National Science Foundation Outstanding Woman Scientist Lecturer, speaking to high school students to encourage women in scientific endeavors.
Following her retirement in 2008, Fives-Taylor channeled her passion into a new vocation as a hospice volunteer, providing end of life support for patients through the Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties. In 2012 she was named a Cabot Community Celebrity in recognition of her exceptional community service, along with 40 other volunteers from 22 other states. A founding member of the College’s Community Medical School Advisory Committee, she continued to participate in this program through 2014.
Link to an obituary in the Burlington Free Press here.