Dr. J. Lynn Zimmerman is Senior Vice Provost for External Academic Affairs & Deputy to the Provost and is also Professor of Biology at Emory University. Her primary responsibilities as Senior Vice Provost are to oversee continuing education offered through the Emory Center for Lifelong Learning, to help build relationships with K-12 schools in the Atlanta metropolitan area and to work with other Atlanta higher education institutions to strengthen ties with Emory. As Deputy to the Provost she works closely with the Provost on a variety of special projects and serves as his designee in his absence. As Professor of Biology at Emory, Dr. Zimmerman primarily teaches Biology 141-Foundations of Modern Biology. In this large introductory course, Dr. Zimmerman has worked to incorporate interactive lecture techniques to support student learning, using active student demonstrations of basic concepts, problem based learning case studies and both in and out of class writing assignments .

Prior to joining Emory in Fall 2007, Dr. Zimmerman was Professor of Biology the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. Zimmerman is recognized as a committed educator and generous mentor, receiving the University System of Maryland Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2000, and being named Presidential Teaching Professor in 2001. Her research focused on plant genetic engineering and she holds a patent for a technology to improve heat resistance in crop plants. At UMBC, she also served as Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives where she oversaw several initiatives focused on improving access and diversity in STEM including the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program and the Center for Women and Information Technology. She also led the university's efforts in advancing the careers of women faculty in STEM supported by the NSF's ADVANCE program. In 2006, Dr. Zimmerman was selected as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow and worked with President Shirley Tilghman at Princeton University.

Dr. Zimmerman received her undergraduate education at Wayne State University, her doctoral training at the University of California, Irvine and performed postdoctoral research at Harvard University.