Biography: Douglas Coffin was born and raised in upstate New York. He graduated from Cazenovia (NY) High School in 1976, from Buffalo State in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and then received his PH.D. from SUNY Upstate in 1990. Doug grew up in the farm lands of the rolling hills and green woodlands of upstate New York. The passions of his youth were outdoor fun in the Adirondack Mountains and playing organized sports including baseball, football, track and wrestling.
Upon entering college, he explored a few different areas until he became fascinated with the sciences, particularly research in biochemistry. He worked as an undergraduate research student and then received his Master’s degree in biology. After a short interlude working as a laboratory technician he entered the Ph.D. program at SUNY Upstate Medical Center studying human development, cell biology and anatomy. Teaching anatomy to medical students at upstate was a great experience. He married Vicki Clare in 1983 and son Daniel was born in Syracuse.
After a short fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole, MA and then receiving his Ph.D, Doug and his family went to Seattle Washington. There he served as a post-doctoral fellow in Pathology, under Dr. Steve Scwartz at the University of Washington. Jackie Coffin was born in Seattle and then the family moved to Cincinnati, OH where Doug served in his second post-doctoral fellowship under Dr. Tom Doetschman. There, Doug became fascinated with stem cell biology and molecular genetics and those have been his research pursuits ever since. Lindsey Coffin was born in Cincinnati.
The big skies and independent nature of Montana precipitated his next move, in 1993, to Great Falls, Montana and the McLaughlin Research Institute. The MRI had just built a state of the art genetics institute thanks to the hard work of a new Senator, Max Baucus and Congressman Pat Williams who obtained a federal grant for the project. Doug built the transgenic facility at MRI and made the first genetically altered, transgenic mice in Montana. His love of teaching and the energy of students drew Doug to the rapidly expanding research program in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Montana in 1998.
Doug has reached the rank of Full Professor at UM. While still active in scientific research and dedicated to teaching, he has also made advocacy for higher education and Main Street America a mission by serving with the “faculty union” the University Faculty Association. He is a past-president of the UFA, making empowerment of faculty and student success the focus of his energies. He is married to Diana Lurie, who is also a full Professor in Neurosciences and Natural Medicine at UM. Currently, all three children are students at UM; “I’d say that makes me a stakeholder. I love the University and I love Montana, serving them both in the legislature is a natural thing to do”. Now, Doug is proud to be a candidate for house district 93.
Contact Doug:
Doug Coffin for HD 93 4730 Mark Court Missoula, MT 59803 406-544-5342 email: MTDougC@gmail.com