Dr. Lisa Blue – University of Kentucky

Dr. Lisa Blue is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky, UK’s first appointed Faculty Tutoring Coordinator, and the Chair Elect for the Lexington Local Section for the American Chemical Society. A St. Louis native, Dr. Blue initially pursued a pre-med track at Missouri State University before switching majors and completing B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry. While exploring career options as a an undergraduate, Dr. Blue interned at Kraft as a cheese chemist, Dayco as a Factory Technical Laboratory analyst, and the Blackman Water Treatment Plant for City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri, where she felt she’d found her calling as an environmental and analytical chemist. Dr. Blue briefly taught mathematics and chemistry at Ozarks Technical Community College while working full-time in the Speckman Academic Achievement Center before coming to UK to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry. This was followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering where she studied the speciation and mobility of uranium in natural sediments. Dr. Blue left St. Louis to join a Lexington start-up, Covalent Research Technologies, as the Director of Research and Development where she worked with industry partners to capture mercury, arsenic, and problematic heavy metals from industrial and mining wastewater effluents. While at Covalent, Dr. Blue returned to teaching part-time as an outlet to share her passion for understanding our natural world. When the start-up company was shuttered in 2012, Dr. Blue came to UK full-time. Her current interests include studying cognitive psychology to better equip her students to become effective life-long learners, helping students explore their STEM career options, providing mental health first aid for suicide prevention, and advocating for social justice reform. During her off-hours, Dr. Blue kayaks, hikes, and volunteers with the Scott County Humane Society where she holds a monthly speaking engagement on a local news station and specializes in rehabilitating community cats and medical kittens. Dr. Blue lives in Lexington with her two teenaged sons.