Rachel Woodruff

I have been at Brandeis since 2012, where I have the pleasure of teaching and mentoring an incredibly smart and diverse group of students every semester. I teach one of our introductory courses (Genetics and Genomics, BIOL 14a), which is taken by many first-year and second-year undergraduate students. I also teach other courses in genetics, molecular biology and cancer biology. In 2013-14, I had the honor of being one of the Davis Fellows, a group of faculty working together to share and develop our best practices in teaching. I have twice received Provost's Teaching Innovation Grants, for two different projects, in 2015 and in 2018. My goal is to support every individual student in becoming a skillful learner, in understanding biology, and in growing their own interests. After beginning as a chemistry student, I discovered my love for biology and majored in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale, then went on to earn my PhD in Biology at MIT. During my graduate student years, nearly all of my energy was focused on my research: biochemical and genetic experiments to better understand the roles, activity, and regulation of DNA damage response factors in yeast and bacteria which enable copying of UV-damaged DNA molecules. Similar mechanisms in humans are involved in both prevention of cancer and affecting the effectiveness of chemotherapies. Through my research during and after graduate school, I learned how beautifully genetics and biochemistry can work together to answer biological questions, and became a more well-rounded biology. As I was enjoying my research, I was also exploring my interest in teaching on the side. I learned a tremendous amount about teaching by apprenticing myself to more experienced teachers in several ways: as a part of the MIT HHMI Education Group, teaching introductory biology at MIT for a semester as a Technical Instructor, and teaching in the High School Outreach Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. My teaching mentors share their wisdom, and gave the courage to keep trying to teach better, every class. I briefly taught Biochemistry at Suffolk University, before joining the Brandeis faculty in 2012.