Jordan Dutcher, M.D. is a current second-year, resident physician in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Florida. She began her collegiate career at the young age of fifteen at Florida Gulf Coast University. She then transferred to the University of Alabama, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology. In 2022, she completed her medical school education at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine where she was one of the inaugural members of Mayo Clinic's Florida 2+2 program.

As an inaugural student, she had the opportunity to pioneer the development of the medical student experience and the campus as a whole. She founded and led the American Medical Women's Association and the Association of Women Surgeons, Mayo Clinic's Florida chapters during her third and fourth years of medical school. Both of these chapters remain active today and continue to grow.

Her research focus has highlighted her passion for medical education. Most notably, she assisted in the creation of a novel curriculum on human trafficking and trauma-informed care, which was later published for access at other training institutions.

As a recent alumna, she has continued her involvement with the education shield at Mayo Clinic through teaching and serving as the graduate medical education representative on the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and Simulation Medicine subcommittees.

Outside of medicine, Dr. Dutcher also has experience as a successful entrepreneur. She devoted time to establishing, marketing, and operating a sugar cookie company. She has also worked alongside her family to initiate a 501c3 animal rescue to rehabilitate blind and abused horses. She is an active member of her Eleven22 church community, alongside her husband, Ryden Smith. They enjoy their life together and can be seen spending time on the beach with their English Bulldog, Meatball, or cheering on the Crimson Tide on game day.

Jannifer Lee was born in South Korea and immigrated to the small town of Bethel, Connecticut, without knowing a word of English. Despite this challenge, she persevered through three years of ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, demonstrating diligence and hard work. Her efforts paid off when she received acceptance to Brandeis University to pursue a degree in psychology and pre-medical studies.

During her undergraduate studies, Jan developed a keen interest in studying signaling disruptions within the basal ganglia of the brain. This fascination extended to understanding how these disruptions affect habits, decision-making processes, and their implications in neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington’s disease.

Post-graduation, Jan sought to deepen her understanding of brain circuits by pursuing a laboratory position at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, under the mentorship of Dr. Ann Graybiel. Simultaneously, she pursued a master’s degree in biological sciences at Harvard University, which investigated the progressive changes occurring in the Mu-opioid receptor 1 in the striatum of Q175 knock-in mouse models of Huntington’s disease.

Seeking a more translational approach, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Kendall Lee at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to study the neural basis for deep brain stimulation. All these collective experiences in the field of neuroscience made Jan a very strong candidate for the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and highly recruited to our school. Once at Mayo, she pursued her Ph.D. work under the guidance of Dr. Wilfried Rossoll on her Ph.D. thesis titled, “Proximity proteomic profiling of pathological tau aggregates uncovers novel tau-associated proteins across tauopathies.” Her research provides valuable insights into novel proteins involved in the disease progression of tauopathies like Alzheimer’s disease.

Throughout her academic journey, Jan remained an active member of the student body. Recognized by her peers and faculty, she was selected as this year’s graduation speaker, reflecting her leadership qualities and ability to unify her class. Upon matriculation, she was the first-year representative for her Ph.D. class, the first Florida student to be in the first-year position to unify the students across the three campuses. She then continued to represent the Florida student body as the Florida site representative. It became increasingly clear that the student body was increasing. As a representative of the Florida student body, she advocated for student needs, including the establishment of graduate student-only study and lounge spaces, demonstrating her commitment to fostering a warm and supportive academic community. Today, thanks to her leadership contributions, we have two student lounges in the research buildings and over 50 Ph.D. students on this Florida campus. She has been a vibrant member of our growing Florida student community and she will be very missed.