Visiting Professor of Biology Danielle Hemingson is no longer just a visitor on the BU campus.

“I really have enjoyed teaching and being in the classroom,” Hemingson said. “I really like our lab experience a lot, but just being at Baker itself is like a small family community all in one little place.”

Hemingson is originally from Waverly, Iowa, and she graduated from Buena Vista University, where she studied athletic training. She then attended graduate school and majored in kinesiology and sports science.

“This is the first time I have taught full-time at a university, I came from the YMCA, and I am more of a practitioner, so I have worked with a lot of clients and patients,” Hemingson said. “This is really my first full-time teaching, but I have always taught adjunct, which is online a lot more and you do not really get to know your students that well. Being here with them in person and seeing them nearly daily is really fun.”

For 2017-18, Hemingson will become a full-time faculty member teaching classes for both biology and exercise science.

“I am so happy for her,” senior Maddie Wilcox said. “Baker is really gaining a great asset in hiring her full-time, and I have no doubt she will go on to inspire countless other students.”

Hemingson has had a lot of real-life experiences involving the sciences, and some students say this is an advantage for her when she teaches.

“She is super knowledgeable and knows a lot about how the body works,” junior Brenna Herdman, who is a teaching assistant for Hemingson, said. “She is super-personal, and if I ask her a question she is going to give a straight-up answer.

Hemingson recently gained another connection to the Baker community when she became engaged to Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Chris Todden.

“We have been dating for a while, and he proposed a couple of weeks ago in our living room,” Hemingson said.

They are planning a May wedding.

In the meantime, Hemingson’s students can benefit from the different types of training and experiences she has gained as an athletic trainer and working for the YMCA.

“My favorite part of the job is when I see a student realize something,” Hemingson said. “Either they realize a concept in anatomy or they put some things together and have an ‘aha’ moment.”