Susan Elrod

Susan Lynn Elrod (born June 13, 1963) is an American professor, scholar, university administrator and the sixth chancellor of Indiana University South Bend.

Early life and education Elrod was born on June 13, 1963, in San Jose, California. She graduated from Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, CA, in 1981. Elrod completed her bachelor of science in biological science with a minor in Chemistry from California State University, Chico, in 1986. Later, in 1995, Elrod received her PhD in genetics from the University of California, Davis.

Career Elrod began her career as a research assistant at Biogen IDEC (now Biogen) in 1987, where she researched on anti-cancer antibodies. Elrod was then associated with UC Davis Medical Center in 1988 as a cancer research associate. She served as a postdoctoral researcher at Novozymes in Davis, CA, in 1995 following the completion of her PhD.

She served as an assistant professor of biological sciences at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, beginning in 1997. Elrod also served as an assistant director of the Center for Teaching and Learning from 2002-2003.

In 2010, Elrod was appointed executive director of Project Kaleidoscope at the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She then served as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at California State University, Fresno in 2013. Elrod was appointed as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University, Chico, in 2014.

She became a provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, in 2016. In 2019, Elrod joined Indiana University South Bend as its sixth chancellor. A few days after her retirement, the campus announced that Brian Pappas from the University of North Dakota would replace her an chancellor starting on July 1, 2025, and that Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Andy Williams will serve as interim deputy chancellor in the meantime.

Elrod was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2019 and received the Woman of the Year Award from the YWCA of North Central Indiana in 2022. Her research and publications in these areas include Assessment of fungal diversity using terminal restriction fragment (TRF) , Building, Using and Maximizing the Impact of Concept Inventories in the Biological Sciences, and Facilitating Interdisciplinary Learning: Lessons from Project Kaleidoscope.

Selected publications Elrod has written over 30 articles on different topics for several publications, including Academic Leader, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, The Review of Higher Education, CBE: Life Science Education, Methods in Molecular Biology, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Biotechniques, and others.

Books

Articles

Elrod, S. (April 1, 2024) Five Reasons Change Initiatives Fail. Academic Leader. González, A., Holcombe, E., Elrod, S.L., Kezar, A., (2023) Transforming Higher Education Through an Ecosystem Model of Systemic Change Leadership. Academic Leader. Elrod, S.L. Kezar, A., González, A., (2023) Change Leadership Toolkit: A Guide for Advancing Systemic Change in Higher Education.

Elrod, S.L. and Kezar, A. (2016) Increasing Student Success in STEM: A Guide to Systemic Institutional Change. Washington, DC: AAC&U. Kezar, A., Gehrke, S., and Elrod, S. L, (2015) Implicit Theories of Change as a Barrier to Change on College Campuses: An Examination of STEM Reform. The Review of Higher Education. 38(4): 479-506. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1066221

Elrod, S.L., Jones, A., Berka, R., Cherry, J.R. (2000) Cloning of the Aspergillus oryzae hemA gene and its use as a selectable marker. Current Genetics 38: 291-8. Elrod, S.L. (1995) Genetic Analysis of CDC36 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Davis.

Scudder, S.A., Elrod, S.L., Gumerlock, P., Kawasaki, E.S. (1990) Detection of the Multidrug Resistance (MDR) Gene Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): Correlation with in vitro Drug-Testing. Clinical Research. 38(1): A133.