CEILS Welcomes Rachel Kennison as Associate Director for Professional Development and Student Engagement

Rachel received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, MS in Clinical Social Work from Columbia University and her PhD in Biology from UCLA in 2008. Her graduate research focused on studying the structure and function of southern California estuaries, and the patterns of nutrient availability and macroalgal blooms. Her overriding goal was to further her passion for communicating science to a broad audience, teaching and mentoring and working with underrepresented students in science to improve the pipeline to higher education. After graduating she worked as Co-Director for the Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence-West, a program connecting K-12 teachers with marine scientists and implementing cutting edge research into the K-12 classroom.

Rachel teaches the Career Development for Life Science Majors course (LS 110), exposing students to a variety of career opportunities in the sciences and featuring UCLA faculty and alumni speakers from various industries. Additionally, Rachel runs all of the programming for the CEILS CIRTL (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning) program. CIRTL provides professional development opportunities for future faculty (graduate students and postdoctoral scholars) interested in academic careers at the intersection of research and teaching.

Rachel can be contacted at rkennison@ceils.ucla.edu.