Jolie Leonard, an IWU alumnus, obtained a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  While there, she studied the mechanisms by which HIV proteins alter the normal function of infected cells in order to evade detection by the immune system.

Jolie completed a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, designing and testing candidate influenza and HIV vaccines. 

Jolie joined the Department of Biology at Indiana Wesleyan University in 2014 and is continuing to research the manner in which HIV alters cellular enzyme functions to influence virus infectivity.