Suze Roots

I grew up in the Buckeye State along the Ohio River.  I've always loved being outside and I've always been a tomboy, even if I wasn't crazy about bugs.  I usually managed to convince the neighbor kids to play "pioneer" with me and traverse the rugged, inhospitable landscape of... my backyard.  And when they'd had enough of my imaginary Oregon Trail, I'd run down the street to help Kathy weed her expansive garden until we dug up worms.  I wasn't much for worms back then either.   

I really liked school and had a lot of great teachers.  I loved geography and science the most.  My seventh grade science fair project was about the eyesight of horses and determining the range of their blind spots.  Did you know that horses have two blind spots in their vision? Do you know where they are? My least favorite things about school were board races in math class and kickball.  It took me a lot of years to realize that you don't have to be good at team sports to be athletic.   

In high school at Ursuline Academy I started to figure things out a bit more.  I found sports that I loved that did not require a ball- cross country and track.  I took the class that would lay the foundation for my career - AP Biology.  And most importantly, I realized that my love for the natural world could take me places outside of Cincinnati and far from the Ohio River.  I packed a big bottle of sunscreen and headed to the Florida Keys where I was dazzled by the salt exuding leaves of mangrove trees, the filtering qualities of seagrass beds, and barracudas lurking near coral reefs.   

The trip gave me a lot of inspiration.  Not just for my college essay, but to get SCUBA certified in a rock quarry in Indiana.  While the sunken school bus wasn't much to look at, it got me thinking about artificial reefs.  Later that year, I started my collegiate career in the South studying Marine Science, but found myself back in Ohio where I ultimately earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from the University of Dayton.   

It took three months of office temp work after my freshman year of college to realize that I had the college summer break thing all wrong.  My friends in Cincinnati all told me I was crazy as I packed my bags the following summer to work in Minnesota, but it turned out to be an experience that would change the trajectory of my entire life.

I spent many hours falling in love with plants and even more time swatting at mosquitos at an ecological research station north of the Twin Cities. I got really sunburned and eventually learned to identify those prairie plants, but most importantly, I became immersed in an area of biology that continues to inspire me - ecology! 

A domino effect was set into motion after college graduation and suddenly new, exciting opportunities seemed to follow one after another! I felt inspired to learn more, do more, and see more! The wanderlust set in and before I knew it, this midwestern girl was landing in Guatemala City and couldn't say much more than 'hola'! 

I reforested hillsides in Guatemala, made baskets in Malawi, caught butterflies in Colorado, and measured vines in Panama - all in the name of biology, service, and adventure! I officially became an Ecogeek in 2006, but it took me a couple years to realize I'd been one all along. 

Off camera, I recently completed my graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where I studied tropical forest ecology.  During my graduate work my Spanish improved (slightly), but most importantly I learned about the role of woody vines in tropical forests and how tropical forest composition may change in response to our changing climate. 

Somebody told me once, "Never stop exploring your world!"  It's probably one of the best pieces of advice I ever got. 

Suze Roots Bio Video

Meet the Faces of Untamed Science

Rob Nelson Rob is the executive producer and principal director for Untamed Science and works to coordinate the podcasting efforts, world biomes site, flowering plant families pages, fish pages and the invasive plants of the US. He also stars as an oncamera personality in many of the episodes of the new highschool, middle grades and elementary BioAdventures DVDs that are being produced with Pearson Publishing... more on Rob

Jonas Stenstrom: Jonas coordinates our current educational outreach efforts overseas. He coordinates the Expeditions pages, Biodiversity pages, and is the principal producer for the "Mendel" Chapters on genetics. He is the primary Dive Rite Ambassador contact, Save our Seas contact and is actively working to help promote Ocean Awareness with the Untamed Science team ... more on Jonas

Hazen Audel:Hazen is a native of Eastern Washington. He is an avid adventurer and currently works as a biology teacher and artist. Hazen is one of our oncamera host for the ecogeeks. He is also the star of the Mushrooms chapter video that will premiere with the BioAdventures Video Series that is coming out in the new Macaw books with Pearson Publishing ... more about Hazen

Suze Roots: Suze is a plant biologist. She recently completed a master's degree
studying tropical woody vines (lianas) in Costa Rica and Panama through
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Suze is also one of our writers,
working to make the content scientifically accurate and fun for both
students and teachers.  Suze is the star of several of the new
BioAdvenures Videos and Chemistry series ... more about Suze

Danni Washington Danni is our Floridian crew contact and one of the most enthusiastic individuals most of us have ever met. Danni studied marine biology at the Universit of Miami. She is currently working to promote ocean awareness through her own inititative known as The Big Blue and You! She stars in several of the highschool middle grade and elementary BioAdventure videos ... more on Danni

Haley Chamberlain Haley studied Bryophytes (mosses) in South Carolina. She also studied and worked as an actor in Minnesota. She is the series producer for our elementary series with Pearson Publishing. As an ecogeek Haley is passionate about finding creative and entertaining ways to tell our science stories. One of her new passions is directing the music program. As a host she works educating youth through both her on camera presence and her in school appearences more on Haley

Untamed Science Trailer

To give you a brief taste of how the crew is trying to make science fun, we've compiled a few outtakes from our the new high school biology series that is being published with Pearson Publishing

Other Untamed Science Crew and Staff

The on-camera faces of Untamed Science are only a few of the many people that have made this site a success. We'd also like to note a few of the other key players on the team.

• Dan Bertalan - Producer/Marketing Specialist/Business Coordinator
• Jaime Jelenchick - Producer
• Matt Browning - Editor / Post-Production Supervisor
• Ed Watkins - Producer/Post-Production Coordinator
• Keren Albala - Animator
• Spencer Britton - Animator
• Jon Lemerond - Animator
• Mike Colarik - Animator
• Derek Perkowski - Animator
• Monica Pinzon - Camera-person