Faculty Profiles

Suzy studies animal behavior and neuroethology with a general interest in how behaviors and the mechanisms that underlie behavior evolve. She earned a B.S. in Zoology at University of Washington where she fell in love with science through opportunities at Friday Harbor Labs. She then earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis studying the molecular basis of circadian rhythm in the lab of Dr. Paul Taghert and did a short postdoc studying EvoDevo of echinoderm in the lab of Maria Byrne at University of Sydney in Australia. In her next postdoc she brought together the behavioral research from her graduate work with the EvoDevo way of thinking to do a second postdoc with Dr. Hans Hoffman at Harvard University where they developed genomic techniques to study the evolution of social behavior using cichlid fish as a model. Her funded research projects include behavioral genomics of maternal care, the evolution of behavioral plasticity, and genome evolution using various species of African cichlid fishes (ask her if you want to know when to use fish and when to use fishes). But her research interests are far ranging and often guided by the interests of the students who populate the lab. These other projects include epigenetics of early life experience, circadian rhythm, communication in killer whales, telomere dynamics, gut-brain-microbiome interactions and many other published and unpublished projects. She recently worked at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a program director for the Behavioral Systems Cluster (BSC) in the Division of Integrative and Organismal Systems (IOS). All NSF Program Directors wear many hats, and Suzy focused on cross disciplinary programs and training programs. Suzy enjoys collaborating with researchers from other disciplines and brings this same passion for collaboration to her current role as the Associate Dean of the Faculty at Reed College. Outside of work, you’re likely to find Suzy eating pizza with friends after a bike ride of some sort. When it comes to cycling, she believes in diversity and enjoys road biking, mountain biking, cyclocross, and even BMX equally. When the weather turns, you’ll find her on the slopes where she is partial to snowboarding but happy to share the mountain with skiers.