Suzanne Gray

Why I'm running for the IAGLR Board of Directors

I am passionate about the health of great lakes around the world and engaging the next generation of freshwater stewards. My passion emerged when I started my graduate work in Lake Matano, Indonesia, investigating color in fishes. I was mesmerized by the lake and endemic diversity it held, less so by the activities around the lake that were severely modifying the lake ecosystem. I have since championed the conservation of freshwater ecosystems. Having received the benefit of working with established researchers in a large lakes as a student and early career researcher, including Lakes Malawi and Victoria in Africa, Lakes Ontario and Erie in North America, I feel that it is my turn to serve the greater community of researchers who share my passion. Serving as an IAGLR board member is one way that I can give back to the community and contribute to the governance of the association.

Previous Board Experience
My first experience interacting with a board was as a member of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Outreach Committee from 2009–2013. I have since served as an elected board member for the Ohio Lake Management Society (2013–2016) and was the program co-chair on the North American Lake Management Society Annual Meeting 2018 Local Organizing Committee (2016–2018). In 2018 I was elected president-elect for the Ohio Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, served as president from 2020–2021 and past-president from 2020–2021. In this role I also served as the continuing education and student activities chair on the Local Organizing Committee for the American Fisheries Society Annual Conference 2020 (cancelled due to Covid). Currently, I am an elected member at large on the board of directors for the Lake Erie Area Research Network (2018-current).

Bio

Dr. Suzanne Gray is an associate professor in the School of Environment & Natural Resources at The Ohio State University and recently became the Stone Laboratory associate director of academic programming and research. She joined OSU in 2013, having completed several years of postdoctoral work at McGill University (Quebec) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada after completing her Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University (British Columbia) in 2007. Suzanne’s research and teaching focus on understanding the response of freshwater fishes to human-driven environmental change. Specifically, her lab group investigates the underlying behavioral and physiological mechanisms that allow some species to cope with environmental change while others cannot. While Suzanne has worked in large lakes globally, including in Indonesia, Malawi, and Uganda, her efforts now largely focus on Lake Erie fishes. For example, using OSU’s Stone Laboratory as a base, Suzanne and her team are investigating how walleye and their prey, and the anglers that seek to catch the walleye are affected by harmful algal blooms. Suzanne is passionate about teaching and training the next generation of freshwater stewards and has won national and international teaching awards for her contributions to providing experiential learning opportunities for students. Suzanne also served as the president of the Ohio Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, is an associate editor for the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences and is a board member for the Lake Erie & Aquatic Research Network.