Dr. Bonnie H. Ownley is a professor of plant pathology in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She received her B.S. in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.S. in microbiology from Auburn University, Alabama, and Ph.D. in plant pathology, with a minor in soil science, from North Carolina State University, Raleigh. She was a postdoctoral research fellow with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service, in the Root Disease and Biological Control Research Unit at Pullman, Washington, and a visiting plant pathologist in the Plant Pathology Department at Washington State University before joining the faculty at the University of Tennessee.