Megan Slaker

Megan Slaker is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Wisconsin Lutheran College, with a joint appointment in the Biology department. She joined WLC in 2019 to establish the neuroscience program and teaches courses including Principles of Neuroscience, Neuroanatomy, and Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research focuses on learning and memory processes, addiction neuroscience, and synaptic plasticity, particularly examining perineuronal nets and their roles in drug-related behaviors and traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Slaker holds a BA in Biology from Bethany Lutheran College (2011), a PhD in Neuroscience from Washington State University (2016), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pharmacology & Toxicology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (2018). Her work bridges basic neuroscience with translational applications, including developing protocols for animal models of learning and memory.

Her scholarly contributions span over 10 peer-reviewed articles, with recent work exploring the impact of traumatic brain injury on drug-seeking behaviors and the role of perineuronal nets in cocaine-associated memory. She serves on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and Title IX Investigator Assessment Committee at WLC, and advises senior thesis projects in Neuroscience and Biology. She is a member of the Society for Neuroscience.