Lisa E. Goehler Ph.D

Dr. Goehler was born and raised in the Seattle area of Washington State. She attended the University of Washington as an undergraduate, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. During that time she had the opportunity to work with Dr. Ilene Bernstein, investigating learned taste aversions associated with tumors and chemotherapy. She did her graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles. There she began her investigations into the structure and function of the autonomic nervous system, with emphasis on the liver and metabolic regulation, while training with Dr. Catia Sternini and Dr. Don Novin. Dr. Goehler then moved to Colorado to train with Dr. Tom Finger in comparative anatomy, where she was able to apply this approach to the organization of the vagus and splanchnic-mesenteric nerves in catfish and goldfish, while at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. Dr. Goehler became active in the field of psychoneuroimmunology in 1992, when she joined the team of Dr. Linda Watkins and Dr. Steve Maier,at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studying immune-to-brain communication. In 2000, Dr. Goehler moved to the University of Virginia, where she continues her work focusing on the organizing features of immune sensory pathways. Dr. Goehler lives with her husband, Ron Gaykema, and two daughters, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.