About

Susan Elrod, PhD, is an experienced biology professor, university administrator, and nationally recognized expert in higher education change leadership. Throughout her career, she has used an entrepreneurial mindset and a shared leadership approach to achieve meaningful progress and lasting change.

Elrod has served as a leader at universities within three university systems in the United States, most recently as the sixth chancellor of Indiana University South Bend from 2019 to 2024. Prior to that, she served as provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and, before that, as interim provost at California State University, Chico. Her experience also includes serving as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at California State University, Fresno and as a faculty member and campus leader, assistant chair, associate dean, and director of a STEM education center at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In these roles, she led efforts that resulted in enrollment gains, curricular innovations, greater achievement of diversity outcomes, fiscal sustainability, organizational realignment with strategic priorities, improved community engagement, and fundraising success.

As executive director of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) from 2010 to 2013 at the Association of American Colleges and Universities—now the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)—Elrod led multi-campus national initiatives focused on improving undergraduate STEM education and national faculty leadership programs with funding from the U.S. Department of Education and several philanthropic foundations. She is a co-founder of CRUSE, the Coalition for Reform in Undergraduate STEM Education, a consortium of seven national associations focused on fostering national collaborations for student success in STEM. In 2019, Elrod was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her work in STEM higher education. From 2006 to 2007, she was an American Council on Education (ACE) fellow at Colorado College.

Elrod’s scholarship has resulted in more than 30 publications on topics ranging from undergraduate research to systemic change and leadership, as well as several scientific publications and patents. She is the co-author of the Change Leadership Toolkit (2025) and Shared Leadership in Higher Education (2021). Elrod has raised more than $10 million in federal and private funds to support research and educational initiatives; she and her colleagues have been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and others. She regularly leads workshops and leadership retreats, conducts webinars, and gives keynote addresses on leading systemic change for campuses, associations, and state systems as well as at national conferences.

Professional Credentials

Elrod holds a PhD in genetics from the University of California, Davis, and an undergraduate degree in biological sciences from California State University, Chico. There, she also served as president of the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) and was inducted into the Omicron Theta Epsilon Biological Sciences Honor Society. After completing her PhD, Elrod held a postdoctoral fellowship at Novozymes, Inc. in Davis, California.