UCLA Life Sciences
Rachel Kennison – executive director of the UCLA Center for Education, Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS), associate professor of teaching in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and a Bruin alum (Ph.D. ’08) – has received the 2026 UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award for Senate Faculty in the category of Innovation & Impact.
Knowing that STEM majors can often feel a bit lost along their academic journey – for over twenty years, Kennison has focused on improving the undergraduate STEM experience so that all students are set up to thrive and succeed.
Preparing undergraduates for their future careers
Early in her academic career, Kennison began teaching undergraduate courses and helped lead undergraduate research programs at UCLA and Santa Monica College. She saw that in the traditional STEM curriculum, students learned academic concepts and lab skills, but they weren’t aware of the many fulfilling career options available to them or even what to consider when choosing a specific career.
To bridge that gap, Kennison created and taught LS110: “Career Exploration in the Life Sciences.” The class enables students to explore a wide range of careers, while reflecting on their own values, strengths, and unique interests. Students conduct informational interviews with professionals in their fields, gather information and build their future networks. Not only do students come away with polished pitches, cover letters, and resumes, they also can better prepare themselves – during their time as undergrads – and have a clear roadmap for their next steps after graduation.
Improving STEM instruction across campus and beyond
In addition to incorporating evidence-based teaching practices in her own classes, Kennison has been improving STEM instruction and student learning through her mentorship and training of faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students.
Through UCLA’s Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (an international certificate program), she’s advanced the training of post-doctoral researchers and graduate students – allowing them to design, apply, and assess evidence-based teaching interventions in their classrooms. The program builds a generation of future faculty that will lead inclusive STEM teaching in higher education.
Since 2021, Kennison has been directing a team at CEILS to provide resources and raise standards for evidence-based teaching across south campus. CEILS hosts an annual faculty teaching workshop, the UCLA Summer Institute on Evidence-Based Teaching, as well as a journal club to share the latest innovations to improve STEM teaching.
Under Kennison’s leadership, CEILS has been an important partner in UCLA’s implementation of SEA Change, an initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to support departmental assessments of their teaching practices and work toward changes in policies and practices that support equitable and inclusive teaching.
Centering her work on educational research, inclusion, and better outcomes for all STEM students, Kennison has not only elevated teaching and STEM student success in her own classroom, but also across UCLA’s South Campus and institutions nationwide.