California State University, Northridge

Donna FitzRoy Hardy, Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Donna Hardy received her Ph.D. in Psychobiology from the University of California, Irvine, in 1969 and joined the Psychology Department at CSUN (then San Fernando Valley State College) in the fall of that year. Her research involved hormones and behavior of animals and she published many articles in this field as well as supervised students in the Psychbiology Graduate Program in her department. Her many years of service on the departmental Educational Policies Committee involved the developmnent of the Minor in Human Sexuality and the Minor in Leadership, as well as many courses. She worked many years with Associated Students leaders and the staff of the Student Activities Office in student leadership development. Her involvement with students has continued throughout her career and she is especially proud of serving as faculty advisor to the Gay Students Union in the 1970's and having the honor of working with disabled students in many capacities. She was honored by the Office of Disabled Students Services in 1984 in recognition of her outstanding support of disabled students. Her interests in world-wide conservation led her to form the Consortium of Aquariums, Universities and Zoos in 1985, which culminated in the late 1990's in a large international data base of educators and conservation researchers. She has made many presentations and published many articles on the use of the World Wide Web in conservation efforts. Her talent for photography led her to compile a collection of photographs of rare horses, ponies and other equids for her upcoming book, Horses of the World. Some of her photographs now appear in the book Talking with Donkeys by Mark Meyers, published last year. Her expertise in animal behavior is valued by her comparative psychology students and she was awarded the Outstanding Professor Award by the Psi Chi Honor Society. Her non-traditional approach to teaching is also appreciated by the students in her popular Psychology of Creativity course. In the spring of 2006, she brought an understanding of the 1960's to the cast of the CSUN production of HAIR. The cast members have enthusiastically included her in their "Tribe."