Assistant Professor of Animal Studies, Eckerd College

Dr. Erin Frick is an Assistant Professor of Animal Studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. Originally from Sparta, NJ, Erin earned her B.Sc. in Zoology with minors in Animal Behavior and Spanish from the University of New Hampshire. She then went on to complete her Masters and Doctoral degrees in Brain and Behavior Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi, working in the Marine Mammal Behavior and Cognition Laboratory with director Dr. Stan Kuczaj. Erin has been active in research for more than 10 years, and her research interests include animal behavior, animal welfare and conservation, and applied behavior analysis in animal models. She has experience conducting research with wild animals and animals housed in managed-care facilities, including: bottlenose dolphins, rough-toothed dolphins, sea otters, Asian small-clawed otters, hippopotamus, polar bears, sea lions, Pacific walrus, sea turtles, zebrafish, and rats. Dr. Erin Frick currently serves as co-director of the Animal Studies Research Collaborative at Eckerd College, and is the Director of the Frick Animal Behavior Laboratory, where she and her students are collaborating with the DCP on analyzing data on bottlenose dolphin and Atlantic spotted dolphin behavior and acoustics collected by the DCP in the field. ‘Dr Erin’ is passionate about educating the public and and furthering research on dolphin behavior and communication!