Wildlife Biologist Susanna Paisley to be Invited Commencement Speaker
Wildlife biologist Susanna Paisley ’91 will be the invited speaker for Guilford’s commencement May 7, 2011, as the College concludes its 174th academic year, which is focused on sustainability.
Paisley is director of development for the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent (England) and a part-time lecturer.
She is best known for her ground-breaking work with the spectacled bear of the Andean cloud forest of South America, one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Her research interests center on people-animal interaction and the conservation of biological diversity, and she won the prestigious Whitley Award for Animal Conservation in 1997.
Dana Professor of Biology Lynn Moseley remembers, “When I first met (Susanna), she came to me to discuss the plans for her biology major. She said, ‘I’ve always been fascinated by bears, and I want to go to graduate school to study them.’ At the time, I thought to myself, with more than a little skepticism, that it’s one thing for a student to say she wants to study bears, but it’s something else entirely to actually do it! Well, Susanna did it, and did it in style. “
Paisley earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Guilford and a doctorate in biodiversity management from DICE in 2001. She is the daughter of Anne Newton Paisley ’54 of
Winston-Salem, N.C.
At commencement, President Kent Chabotar will offer a charge to the class and there will be two graduating student speakers selected by seniors next spring.
Nov. 10, 2010
