Victoria I. Holden

Victoria “Tori” Holden graduated from Norwin High School in 2007. She played on the field hockey team and was elected captain as a senior, earning recognition on the WPIAL All-Section First team. Holden then earned her Bachelor of Science in Immunology and Infectious Disease from the Pennsylvania State University in December 2010, where she performed research on the role of dietary Vitamin D in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

In July 2011 she joined the Program in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Michigan, and began her doctoral thesis research in March 2012 with Dr. Michael Bachman. She defended her doctoral thesis and earned her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology in March 2016. Her thesis work examined the effect of iron on lung infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterium that is resistant to all or nearly all antibiotics. Her work resulted in 3 scholarly publications, one of which was highlighted by her peers within the scientific community as well as the general media.

While at Michigan, she was elected as President of the Organization of Microbiology and Immunology Students, and received a Young Investigator Award at the annual American Society for Microbiology conference in 2014. Currently, Holden is performing postdoctoral research at Dartmouth College, where she is studying bacterial lung infections that predominantly affect Cystic Fibrosis patients.

Holden aims to continue her career as a research professor and hopes to contribute to the development of new antibacterial treatments.