Rate My Professor Rodney Rohde

Rodney Rohde serves as an adjunct associate professor of Biology at Austin Community College, where he has been teaching microbiology in the nursing program for over 30 years. He earned his Bachelor of Science in microbiology and Master of Science in Biology, with an emphasis in virology, from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University). In 2010, he received his Ph.D. in Education from Texas State University, focusing on Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Rohde holds certifications as a Specialist in Virology (SV), Specialist in Microbiology (SM), and Molecular Biologist (MB) from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), along with Fellow of the Association of Clinical Scientists (FACSc). Prior to academia, he worked for a decade as a public health microbiologist and molecular epidemiologist at the Texas Department of State Health Services Bureau of Laboratories and Zoonosis Control Division, including two terms as a CDC Visiting Scientist, contributing to rabies control efforts.

Currently, Rohde is also Regents' Professor and Chair of the Medical Laboratory Science Program at Texas State University's College of Health Professions, Associate Director of the Translational Health Research Center, and a clinical assistant professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. His research specializations include public health microbiology, rabies virology, oral rabies wildlife vaccination, antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA, healthcare-associated infections, and molecular diagnostics/biotechnology. He has published more than 150 research articles, abstracts, chapters, and two books: one on MRSA adaptation and "Rabies: Clinical Considerations and Exposure Evaluations" (2019). Notable recent publications include "Measles: An Old Foe Has Returned" (Contagion Live, 2025) and "Texas Tales, Trivia, and Teasers: Rabies Through the Decades" in History of Rabies in the Americas, Volume III (2025). Rohde has received major awards such as the 2015 Austin Community College Teaching Excellence Award, ASCLS Scientific Research Awards (2007, 2014), The Pathologist Power List (2020, 2022, 2023), ASCP Member Excellence in Education Award (2023), and the American Society for Microbiology Waksman Foundation Distinguished Lecturer (2025-2027). He has delivered over 200 presentations, TEDx talks, and media appearances, enhancing public understanding of laboratory sciences and infectious diseases.