Shelia Counce-Nicklas
1927-2016
Sheila Counce-Nicklas was born in 1927 in Hayes Center, Nebraska. She received her BA and MA from the University of Colorado in 1948 and 1950 respectively. After serving as a Fulbright Fellow (1950-1952) and as an American Association of University Women Fellow (1952-1953), she received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in Developmental Genetics in 1954. Dr. Counce was a Macauley Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (1955-1956) and a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Zurich (1956-1957). She also served at Yale as a Research Assistant (1958-1959), Lecturer (1958-1959), and Research Associate (1958-1965).
Dr. Counce joined the Department of Anatomy at Duke in 1967 as a Research Associate and was one of the first women in the Department, ultimately becoming full Professor in the Department in 1978. Her research focused on sex differences among insects, on which she published widely. She was active in a number of professional associations and served on the Appointments and Promotions Committee of Trinity College, the Admissions Committee at Duke University School of Medicine, and as the Director of Graduate studies for the Department of Anatomy.
Interview
This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Sheila J. Counce-Nicklas on June 21, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry.