Deanna Soper

Education

Postdoc, Evolutionary Biology, University of Iowa

Ph.D., Ecology, Evolution, and Animal Behavior, Indiana University Bloomington

M.B.A., Business Administration, Indiana University Northwest

B.S., Biology and Science Education, Trine University

Biography

Deanna Soper's teaching and research interests are focused on evolutionary biology and ecology. The research she conducted for her doctorate and postdoctorate surrounded the evolution of reproduction in a freshwater snail from New Zealand. But, more recently, she has shifted her research focus to more ecological topics. She has a project investigating the growth of shallow-water corals and another using Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)-collected video footage to both develop AI training data sets and investigate the biodiversity of the deep sea of the Pacific Ocean. Deanna's research is directly integrated with courses she instructs both at Miami University's Project Dragonfly and at the undergraduate level at the University of Dallas where she is an Associate Professor. Deanna is a scuba diver and likes to travel with her undergraduate students to tropical places to engage them with immersive ecological learning experiences. She has many animals ranging from her horse, Mae Mae, to chickens, three dogs, lots of fish, a hermit crab, a rabbit, a guinea pig, and a leopard gecko. Luckily, her horse is boarded at an amazing barn, and her two children help to take care of the other animals.