"Dr. Willey earned her BA at the University of Pennsylvania and PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was involved in the planning and design of the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. In September of 2014, she assumed the position of Chair of the Department of Science Education and in 2017, was honored as the Leo A. Guthart Professor of Biomedical Science. In addition to her role as Department Chair, Dr. Willey also serves as course director for Human-Microbe Interactions, taken by all second-year medical students.

Prior to joining the medical school, Dr. Willey taught undergraduate microbiology and supported her lab through NSF and NIH funding. Her work focused on natural product biosynthesis by antibiotic-producing bacteria in the genus Streptomyces."