September 23, 2009 – Someone You Should Know

Teaching at Ohio Wesleyan “feels like returning home,” says assistant professor of zoology Shala Hankison, a member of the Class of 1995.

Photo by Linda O’Horo

Shala Hankison ’95 Returns to Campus to Teach Zoology
Alumna says she’s glad the contagious enthusiasm for science remains

Since returning to Ohio Wesleyan in January, Shala Hankison ’95 has enjoyed seeing the enthusiasm of students taking her zoology classes. This interaction brings back fond memories of her days as an OWU student. While majoring in zoology here, she enjoyed classes with professors such as Jed Burtt and John Gatz.

“The students in my classes at Ohio Wesleyan seem to really enjoy studying science, and their enthusiasm reminds me of the love of science I developed while I was a student here,” Hankison says. She previously worked at larger institutions with class sizes of up to 120 students. “I had wonderful students at those schools, but I didn’t get to know them as well,” she notes.

Hankison’s research involves the Stickleback fish, in which the males do all of the parenting—from building the nest, protecting the eggs, fanning water over the eggs, and caring for the baby fish after they hatch. The females are attracted to the nest by the males, but after conception and egg-deposit, the females abandon the childcare duties to the males.

Photo by Linda O’Horo

A Thornville, Ohio, native, Hankison has been studying the behavior and environment of fishes since graduating from Ohio Wesleyan. Over the past 14 years, she has worked in community outreach at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, earned a master in science degree in biology from Ohio University, worked as a lab technician at Miami University studying organisms that survive freezing temperatures in a cryobiology lab, and earned her doctorate at Clemson University studying the “Evolution of the Behavior in Fishes.” She completed her post-doctorate fellowship studying the evolution of fishes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

While at Ohio Wesleyan, she met her husband, Erinn Nicley ’95. They are the proud parents of a 1-year-old son, Tristan. Outside of the classroom and lab, Hankison enjoys gardening, cooking, and spending time outdoors with Erinn and Tristan.

What kind of fish would she be if she had the choice? “I guess I would like to be a phosphorescent angler deep sea fish,” Hankison says. “They get to see things that we’ve never seen. It would be fun to be an unusual fish in an unusual environment.”

– Linda O’Horo