Vita Marie Chalk

Vita Marie Chalk

Associate Dean

Vita Chalk is a Professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University where she has been a faculty member since 2011. She serves as the College’s Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs.

Vita completed her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, and her undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her graduate and postdoctoral research projects investigated the development of the mammalian nervous system. Vita also studied public affairs at the LBJ School of Public affairs where she learned the application of qualitative research methods to address public policy issues and program evaluation. 

Vita has volunteered with several literacy and community education programs, and as a first generation college student, she has taught college transition courses for both the Virginia Community College system and George Mason University. At Mason, she has also taught Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, and the Anatomy of the Mammalian Brain. Current scholarly interests include the Neuroscience of Perception, Neuroeconomics or the neuroscience that underlies human decision-making, and Rituals of Ancestor Veneration. 

Vita lives in Annapolis with her husband, and enjoys many active and outdoor hobbies. She spends her free time learning new things: about her geneology, learning languages, and new chords for the acoustic guitar. On weekends, she tries to spend time in her garden, or fishing & sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. 

Selected Publications

Kerstin M. Janisch*, Vita M. Vock*, Michael Fleming, Ayushma Shrestha, Cynthia M. Grimsley-Myers, Bareza A. Rasoul, Sarah A. Neale, Timothy D. Cupp, Jason M. Kinchen, Karel F. Liem, Jr, and Noelle D. Dwyer (2013) The vertebrate-specific Kinesin-6, Kif20B, is required for normal cytokinesis of polarized cortical stem cells and cerebral cortex size. Development, 140(23):4672-82

Vita M. Vock, Olga N. Ponomareva, and Mendell Rimer (2008) Evidence for Muscle-Dependent Neuromuscular Synaptic Site Determination in Mammals. JNeurosci 28:3123-3130.

 

Expanded Publication List

Noelle D Dwyer, Danielle K Manning, Jennifer L Moran, Raksha Mudbhary, Michael S Fleming, Carlita B Favero, Vita M Vock, Dennis DM O’Leary, Christopher A Walsh, David R Beier (2011) A forward genetic screen with a thalamocortical axon reporter mouse yields novel neurodevelopment mutants and a distinct emx2mutant phenotype. Neural Development 6:3.

Olga N. Ponomareva, Hualong Ma, Vita M. Vock, Elaine L. Ellerton, Susan E. Moody, Ramzi Dakour, Lewis A. Chodosh, and Mendell Rimer (2006) Defective neuromuscular synaptogenesis in mice expressing constituatively active ErbB2 in skeletal muscle fibers.  Mol Cell Neurosci 31(2):334-45.

Rimer M, Barrett DW, Maldonado MA, Vock VM, Gonzalez-Lima F (2005) Neuregulin-1 immunoglobulin-like domain mutant mice: clozapine sensitivity and impaired latent inhibition. Neuroreport 16:271-275.

Wang J, Vock VM, Li S, Olivas OR, Wilkinson MF (2002) A quality control pathway that down-regulates aberrant T-cell receptor (TCR) transcripts by a mechanism requiring UPF2 and translation. J Biol Chem 277:18489-18493.

 

Education

Ph.D., in Neuroscience, University of Texas, Austin, TX, December 2007

B.Sc. in Biochemistry, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, August 1998