• Academic Profiles
• Enivromental Studies

Deborah L. Beal, Ph.D.

Professor, Coordinator
Environmental Biology and Ecological Studies Program

Education: Georgia College, B.S. 1979; Western Illinois University, M.S. 1985; University of Missouri-Columbia, Ph.D. 1991

Courses: Principles of Biodiversity and Conservation; Environmental Science; The Illinois River Valley and It's People; General Ecology; Ecology of the Northern Woods; Wildlife Management; Field Research Methods in Ecology; Animal Behavior; Women and the Environment; Behavioral and Ecological Genetics; Zoology

Research Interests: Environmental science; wetlands restoration; the life cycle of flying squirrels; K-12 science education programs; use of computers to teach biology concepts; interdisciplinary approaches to science

If you are not afraid of getting muddy, being covered in burrs or kayaking through a pod of dolphins or a group of alligators, then you belong in one of Professor Deborah L. Beal's classes.

"Lecturing is one thing," says Beal. "Taking students out into the environment I'm trying to explain is another. Being outdoors excites them and grabs their attention in a way a lecture can't."

Beal's goal as an ecologist and wildlife biologist is to get students outdoors, off campus and out of Illinois. Each year, she and her husband, (Kent Elwood, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the department of psychology) take students on trips camping and kayaking to the Florida Everglades and to northern Michigan. They also have taken students camping in the Grand Canyon and on eco-tours of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

"When you're kayaking in the Everglades or hiking pristine trails in Michigan or snorkeling with manatees, you get a sense of peace—a sense of fitting in," she says. "You realize you're a part of nature, not a controller of it."

If Beal can't get bring students to the wild, she brings the wild to the students. Rehabilitated Illinois Owls and even a baby cougar (found at the Sangamon County Wildlife Refuge) have found their way into her classroom. One spring, a campus maintenance crew found three abandoned baby squirrels nesting under the hood of a student's car. Beal and her students spent six weeks caring for the squirrels before releasing them on campus—where they still run today.

Beal has been bringing home stray animals and nursing them back to health since she was a child. She considered a career in veterinary medicine but found environmental biology a better fit.

Beal worked as a field biologist and an aquatic biologist before earning her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1991 and joining Illinois College. She was instrumental in creating the Environmental Biology and Ecological Studies major which has grown from five students in it's inception in 2000 to more than 40 students and growing. Many classes, such as Animal Behavior and Wildlife Management, have waiting lists.

In addition to her teaching, Beal is an active researcher, working with the Nature Conservancy and supported by The National Science Foundation, studying wetlands restoration. Beal and her students also are studying the life cycle of the southern flying squirrel, 20 of which live on Beal's farm outside Jacksonville. Another project has Beal working with Springfield's Henson Robinson Zoo to develop K-12 web education programs for the zoo's more than 300 animals. In her free time, Beal is a wildlife photographer.

"I'll do just about anything if it keeps me outdoors," she says. "I've always felt more at home outside than in."

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1101 W. College Ave.
Jacksonville, IL 62650-2299
Phone: 217-245-3010

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Phone: 217-245-3013