Erica Seubert is a professor who believes in the power of her students. As she can tell you herself, her classes involve empowering students through her love of biology and the world around her. In many ways, she's made it a point to show her students just how capable they are of enacting change in the precious ecosystems in which they live. 

Initially, she was hired to teach microbiology, Seubert also teaches general biology and is actively working to reinvigorate the marine biology classes at COC. She joined COC as a full-time professor in the Spring of 2018 right off the bat, and she's never once questioned whether or not biology was the field for her.

Seubert knew from the very beginning that she wanted to specialize in marine biology, thanks in part to her love of the 1998 Disney film The Little Mermaid. Her undergrad in Marine Biology gradually led her to her P.h.D. in Biological Sciences from USC, and she now makes it her mission to help her students explore just what kind of magic lies in the world of biology.

“I love empowering my students so that they can be successful even after they leave my classroom,” Seubert says. “I spent a lot of time stimulating independent learning so that, no matter where they go or where they end up, they know enough about their learning processes that they can succeed anywhere.”

Seubert herself runs a Citizens Science Harmful Algalbloom Monitoring Program, which operates off-campus (though it's a goal of hers to introduce COC students into it sometime soon). The program itself involves monitoring local bodies of water for potentially harmful algae specimens to prevent future complications, as could be the case with such events as climate change. 

When she’s not working with her program or working on planning lessons, she’s still in the throes of the aquatic world -- Seubert is a U.S. Master’s swimmer, and aside from that, she remains active by running half-marathons and marathons. 

Soon she hopes to become as active in her traveling as she is in her pursuit of good health, with plans to travel to Hawaii and revisit Iceland, where she spent her honeymoon. 

Though she’s got a love for athleticism, Seubert shares that her most important goal is to one day get her students to fall in love with biology in the same way that she did all those years ago. 

“I love to get my students to that “aha!” moment,” she says. “There’s an entire world out there, and biology is an amazing field to start exploring it through.”