By Whitney Harder

(April 28, 2016) — Lee X. Blonder, professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Behavioral Science and the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, has been elected by the university faculty as a faculty representative to the UK Board of Trustees. Blonder was elected to a three-year term, which will expire June 30, 2019.

Blonder joins Robert Grossman, professor in the UK Department of Chemistry, as one of two faculty representatives on the board.

"I am honored to have been elected to serve as faculty trustee," Blonder said. "My goals include representing faculty across the university, promoting shared governance, and assisting the Board of Trustees in enabling the faculty to continue to accomplish UK’s statutory missions."

Blonder is filling the seat being vacated by John F. Wilson, whose term as faculty trustee expires June 30. He had served since February 2012. 

Blonder came to UK in 1989. In addition to the Department of Behavioral Science and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, Blonder also has joint appointments in the Departments of Neurology and Anthropology at UK.

Her research focuses on the neural substrates of cognitive and emotional processing in healthy volunteers and patients with stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Blonder also collaborates with colleagues in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center at UK to study cognitive and emotional processing using functional and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

She has served on the College of Medicine Faculty Council, and continues to serve as an elected member of the University Senate, representing the College of Medicine. Blonder served as chair of University Senate Council from 2012-2014 and was recently elected to serve on the University Senate Council in January 2016 for a three-year term. Nationally, Blonder has served as a consultant reviewer for a National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She is also actively involved in the peer-review of manuscripts for various journals.

Blonder received a bachelor's degree in fine art from Bard College and a master's degree in creative art at Hunter College, and went on to earn a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her postdoctoral training in neurology at the University of Florida.