Susan Gerbic

Her father was born in 1918 in Euclid, Ohio, to parents from Slovenia; he served during World War II and after the war went to live in Salinas.

Susan Gerbic (born 1962) is an American studio photographer who became known as a scientific skepticism activist, mostly for exposing people claiming to be mediums.

A columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, she is the co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

The youngest of three children, Gerbic was raised as a Southern Baptist in Salinas, California.

Gerbic attended Fremont Elementary, El Sausal Junior High School, and Alisal High School in Salinas, graduating in 1980.

She became an atheist in her junior year.

Gerbic worked at Lifetouch, a portrait studio in JC Penney in the Northridge Mall in Salinas, from 1982 for 34 years, including as manager.

Gerbic married Robert Forsyth in 1983.

After high school, she studied at Hartnell College, also in Salinas, obtaining AAs in general studies in 1993 and history in 1998, while working and raising two sons.

Gerbic first read Skeptical Inquirer when she was 33, and in 2000, she attended the Skeptic's Toolbox workshop in Eugene, Oregon.

In 2002, she was awarded a BA in Social & Behavioral Studies by California State University, Monterey Bay.

The couple had two sons, and the marriage ended in 2002.

In 2009, she went to Mexico on an "Amazing Adventure" cruise organized by the Canadian stage magician and skeptic James Randi; according to the New York Times, Randi used a MacArthur grant to fund "annual ship cruises filled with skeptics".

Much of Gerbic's activism has consisted of organizing sting operations against people claiming to be mediums.

She and a group of volunteers calling themselves "Guerrilla Skeptics" would set up fake Facebook profiles, then visit mediums claiming to be receiving messages from the subjects of the profiles.

Gerbic's team would record the session and post the evidence online.

They met in 2009 on one of James Randi's skeptics' cruises to Mexico; Edward was working on the ship as part of the entertainment.

In 2010, Gerbic founded "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia" (GSoW), a group of editors who create and edit Wikipedia articles that reflect scientific skepticism.

In 2013, Gerbic discovered she had breast cancer after she and a colleague at Lifetouch studios scheduled mammograms in response to Angelina Jolie undergoing a preventive mastectomy.

By December that year, Gerbic had completed 20 weeks of chemotherapy for stage II cancer and, by March 2014, 33 radiation treatments.

Gerbic continued to work throughout the treatment, and her follow-up mammogram revealed no cancer.

She said the experience had made her tougher.

She retired in 2016 when the studio closed.

As of August 2018, Gerbic was in a relationship with the mentalist Mark Edward.

The New York Times Magazine reported in February 2019, in an interview with Gerbic, that GSoW had 144 editors who had worked on nearly 900 Wikipedia pages.