Biography - Joe Dan Coulter, PhD

Dr. Coulter received his PhD in biological psychology at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in 1971. He then joined the Marine Biomedical Institute at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) as an NIH postdoctoral fellow to pursue neurophysiological and anatomical studies of somatosensory systems. He continued his research training at the Istituto di Fisiologia, Universita di Pisa, Italy, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and returned to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, where he joined the faculty in 1975. He spent 1980 in Washington, D.C., as associate director of the Sensory Physiology and Perception Program of the National Science Foundation. In 1983, Dr. Coulter was appointed assistant to the associate dean for community affairs at UTMB-Galveston and was involved with the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Initiative.

In 1985, he came to The University of Iowa where he served as head of the Department of Anatomy from 1985 to 1992 and as director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program from 1987 to 1996. In 1993, he led the establishment of the American Indian and Native Studies Program in the College of Liberal Arts. From 1996 to 2004, Dr. Coulter served as the associate provost for diversity and director of Opportunity at Iowa. Currently, Dr. Coulter is a professor of community and behavioral health and associate dean for diversity in the College of Public Health, where he is developing educational programs in racial/ethnic health disparities and research and training programs in tribal health in partnership with regional tribal health boards, reservation communities, and tribal colleges.

Dr. Coulter has also served, since 1980, as a member of various NIH advisory committees, including the Neurology B Study Section and NINCDS, NIGMS, NIHLB, NIDR, and NCRR special review and advisory committees. He currently serves on the Review Committee for Research Centers at Minority-serving Institutions of the National Center for Research Resources, NIH and recently served on the National Science Foundation Board of Visitors to conduct a review of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program.

Dr. Coulter is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma and is active in the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, National Indian Education Association, National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education, the American Indian and Alaskan Native Professors, and the Society for Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. He serves as faculty advisor to American Indian and Native Alaskan students on campus and as the director of the Life Sciences Comprehensive Enrichment Program for pre-college American Indian/Native Alaskan students at The University of Iowa. In 1998, he assisted in the establishment of the Iowa First Nations program that provides resident tuition status for members of American Indian Tribes/Nations historically linked to the State of Iowa. He is also an advisor to the Historical Preservation Project of the Meskwaki Nation of Iowa, served on the Iowa Governor’s Equal Employment Opportunities Task Force, and was recently re-appointed to a second term on the Iowa Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.