Susan Pike

Sue Pike is a teacher and nature writer with a passion for connecting students of all ages with the nature found in both their backyards and the world. Sue spent her childhood in the forests and fields of Westchester, New York knowing that nature was her passion but following a sometimes circuitous route to where she is now, an educator and a naturalist. Always a scientist-educator at heart Sue began her journey as an undergraduate studying intertidal invertebrates in the Gulf of Maine, ending up with a PhD in developmental neurobiology - studying how the nervous system develops in zebrafish. But it wasn’t until Sue started her naturalist/education career at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve that she settled on her life’s work-using her research science background to connect people to science, specifically the sometimes obscure science behind the natural history we all encounter every time we walk outside. To this end, she has been writing a weekly syndicated nature column for the past 20 years. This, along with her 15 years of teaching, allow her to spend as much time as possible sharing her enthusiasm for what she experiences in nature with those around her.

Sue’s dedication and enthusiasm for teaching about nature was made evident when she became a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, assigned to Svalbard Norway, back in 2013 and most recently a National Geographic Certified Educator. The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship added a new passion to her repertoire-the Arctic. Since then, she has traveled extensively in the North, the goal being to learn as much as possible about this rapidly disappearing place before it disappears. She has shared this passion on numerous trips with students as well as formulating curriculum that connects the Arctic with her backyard in New England. She now lives on a small farm in rural Maine where she divides her time between teaching, writing, video-blogging, protecting the land as a board member for the Great Works Regional Land Trust and traveling north whenever possible.