Joan Esterline Lafuze

Joan Esterline Lafuze, Ph.D., was a Systems Medical Physiologist and a Professor of Biology at Indiana University East from 1987 until December 2020 when she became Professor Emerita. Dr. Lafuze received her Ph.D. in physiology at Indiana University School of Medicine in 1981 and taught there until she accepted a teaching appointment in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Indiana University East. Dr. Lafuze conducted fulltime research from 1981 until 1987 and continued to collaborate at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She and her family have been active in The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Indiana since its inception. Due to the numerous challenges she and her family faced, Dr. Lafuze has become fascinated with the tremendous strides made in basic science research related to those disorders that have traditionally been considered “behaviorally and socially” based. Her involvement in teaching and translational neuroscience research provides a “springboard” for a multidisciplinary approach to understanding these illnesses and the complexities of treatment strategies.