Dr. Wollman received her Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Science and her Master’s degree in Physical Therapy from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. After graduation, she worked for four years as a staff physical therapist at St. Anthony’s hospital in St. Petersburg, FL before moving to Tucson, AZ to pursue a PhD.

Dr. Wollman completed her PhD in Physiological Sciences at the University of Arizona, mentored by Dr. Ralph Fregosi. Her dissertation work studied the effects of perinatal nicotine exposure on the cholinergic control of fast synaptic neurotransmission in the medullary neural networks that control breathing.

She then joined the laboratory of Dr. David Fuller at the University of Florida as a postdoctoral fellow where she studied the utility of ampakines, a class of drug that positively modulates AMPA-type glutamate receptors, for improving breathing and enhancing hypoxia-mediated plasticity after cervical spinal cord injury.

Dr. Wollman then returned to the University of Arizona, where she pursued her independent research interests. In 2022, she was promoted to Research Assistant Professor after receiving an NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award. Her NIH funded research program investigates how acute nicotine withdrawal after chronic exposure in adulthood impacts the key neural structures involved in the ventilatory response to hypoxia.

Dr. Wollman joined the Human Physiology department at the University of Oregon in September 2024.