RCN-UBE Community

Susan L. Keen

• Extended Profile

  View extended profile
• Organization

  University of California at Davis
• Website

  https://biology.ucdavis.edu/people/susan-keen
• ORCID

  0000-0002-4670-5271
• Reason

  Keeping current in subject matter
• Interests

  1. diversity of life
  2. science education
  3. visualization in biology
• Address

  address1: Department of Evolution and Ecology
  address2: University of California at Davis, 1 Shields Avenue
  city: Davis
  postal: 95616-3048
  region: CA
  country: US
  latitude:
  longitude:
• Biography

  I am a biologist, teaching professor, and vice-chair of the Department of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California at Davis. Born in Canada, I earned a B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia, an M.Sc. from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis (UCD). My teaching has largely been focused on early career students and I have been fortunate to work on policies to support student success at both the college and campus level. I was Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs for the College of Biological Sciences from 2012 to 2018. I teach two of our Introductory Biology courses (Evolution and Ecology; Phylogenetics and Tree of Life) and am interested in activities that promote academic success for STEM undergraduates, in particular first-generation students. As Associate Dean, I hypothesized that gaps in academic performance could be reduced by a combination of support structures associated with required STEM classes. I worked with a colleague, Joel Ledford, to create successful co-classes that provide academic and psycho-social support for first-generation students taking Introductory Biology. Other collaborations with colleagues in Classics, Philosophy, and History led to expanded offerings to support STEM students within the General Education program. Colleagues in the Classics program developed a words course to support students learning the Latin and Greek elements within the language of biology. The role of visual media in teaching biology underpins my NSF-funded Research Collaborative Network VISABLI (with Jodie Jenkinson and Gael McGill), and I focus on using images and text to increase student understanding as lead author for two textbooks (Animal Diversity and Integrated Principles of Zoology) and their associated lab manuals. Writing for the textbooks allows me to maintain my fascination with invertebrate animals and unicellular eukaryotes, two particular favorites on the Tree of Life.