Kelly Suter Named Chair of Natural Sciences Department

Dr. Kelly Suter is the new chair of the natural sciences academic department at San Antonio College.

As chair, Suter will oversee programs including anthropology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, environmental sciences, geology, geography, physics, pre-nursing and pre-pharmacy programs. The department also offers coursework for SAC’s EMS and paramedic programs and mortuary sciences program.

Suter comes to SAC from a position as an associate professor of biology at UTSA, where she often worked with students who had transferred from SAC.

“San Antonio College students always stood out in my junior-level physiology courses because of their amazing mastery of chemistry. I could always pick out a student who had taken chemistry at SAC,” she said. “Their fundamentals in physics were also generally better than other students in the class.”

Her research findings have generated more than two dozen book chapters and scholarly publications, including articles in the Journal of Neuroscience, The Journal of Physiology and the Journal of Computational Neuroscience.

Suter received the Arthur C. Guyton Award for Excellence in Integrative Physiology and Medicine from the American Physiological Society for the integration of experimental and computational methods in her research. She has been the principal investigator on numerous research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Suter earned a doctorate in physiology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She also holds a Master of Science in physiology, a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, and a Bachelor of Arts in biology. She joined UTSA as an assistant professor in 2006 following a post-doctoral fellowship and research professor position at Emory University.

In addition to leading the department, Suter will teach anatomy and physiology.

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