Susan Elizabeth Swanberg

I have been up to a lot.

In the early 1970s I moved to Eugene, Oregon, where my son Justin was born. I graduated with a B.A.in physiological psychology from the University of Oregon in 1975 and from the University of Oregon School of law in 1978. I moved back to California in the late 1970s/early 1980s where I practiced criminal law for many years.

In 1987 my then husband, Robert Zelenks, and I adopted a daughter, Dana Zelenka. She lives near Sacramento and will graduate this summer from nursing school.

My late husband, Richard T. Wood, and I lived in Sacramento, California from the mid 1990s until about 2011. We bought a house in Tucson in 2008 and moved full time to Tucson in 2011 where we lived until my husband passed away in 2023. I now live with my sister, Jill, in Tucson.

I have been employed as a professor of journalism - teaching science and environmental journalism and media law - since the fall of 2015. I'm now a tenured associate professor in the UA School of Journalism.

I love education and have been attending the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law (part time) studying for an LLM degree. I'm studying evidence and environmental law. I interrupted my homework searching for information about a Claremont High School science fair project for which I won a second prize in chemistry. I couldn't find anything on this site about the project.

Charlie Rhoades, if you are here, perhaps you know how I could document that project.

I have three dogs and a horse. I love the Southwest and all of its unusual plants and creatures - including the venomous creatures.

I like science, literary journalism and have dabbled in photography. I have published academic articles and book chapters about the history of science and science journalism. I consider myseof to be a cultural historian of science.

I have also published science stories for the public. Here are links to several of my stories for the public: https://wnpa.org/about-wnpa/newsroom/what-did-you-have-for-breakfast-3 and https://wnpa.org/about-wnpa/newsroom/bat-biologists-monitor-cave-bats-for-white-nose-syndrome-3

Jill Swanberg and Jennifer Swanberg

Our chemistry teacher, Mr. Bookout, used to spray drowsy or inattentive students with a fire extinguisher. He was a real character!

The teacher who most inspired me was Mr. Sigler who taught biology. He introduced me to important biological concepts. In 2005, I graduated from U.C. Davis with a Ph.D. in genetics.

S.

P.S. My time zone is Mountain Standard Time (Tucson, Arizona)