People: Shannon Saszik

Shannon Saszik, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology.

Dr. Saszik was a college dropout in 1993 when she returned to earn her B.A. in Psychology from a small school in Kentucky. With minimal research experience but curious about how the environment impacts behavior, she went on to earn her M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Western Kentucky University and her Ph.D. in Visual Science from the University of Houston. Her research focused on trying to understand how to measure the interaction between visual perception and environment using animal models.

At NEIU, Dr Saszik teaches both introductory courses and advances courses in the Department of Psychology and continues her research using zebrafish as a model system. She has advised and mentored students in the department and believes that research experience provides students with a unique opportunity to use the information from their courses and learn valuable skills that will allow them to be successful in and out of the classroom.  

Students from different departments (Math, Psychology, Biology) have worked in the lab with Dr Saszik on research projects using the zebrafish. In the neuropsychology lab students are trained on how animals are used in research, learning different methods that can be used to measure the impact of environment on neurological system function using the visual system of zebrafish.

Funded by National Science Foundation DUE Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program Award 1832421.