Bio for Benjamin Hà

In August 2024, Dr. Benjamin Hà joined CEILS as the Assistant Director for Future Faculty Development. His main role is to serve as the Program Director for the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning at UCLA (CIRTL@UCLA), a certification program for future educators across all disciplines to learn about evidence-based teaching practices and how to conduct education research. Participation in CIRTL@UCLA is open to graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff.

 

Benjamin completed his postdoc with CEILS where he taught pedagogy courses for 800+ undergraduates across all STEM disciplines and 200+ first-time graduate student TAs in life sciences. Benjamin has a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UCLA and a BA in English and American Literature from NYU. His dissertation focused on interdisciplinary topics in conservation biology, such as using population genetics to inform conservation management for an endangered fish and assessing how active learning impacts undergraduate study behaviors and academic performance. His additional credentials include being a certified CIRTL Scholar and CIMER Facilitator, the latter allowing him to lead trainings on how to be an effective mentor. 

 

Benjamin has broad experiences with teaching and pedagogy. One of his most fondest accomplishments as a graduate student was when he designed and instructed an original undergraduate seminar titled “The History and Racism of Biology Research” through a UCLA teaching fellowship. His efforts for this course were recognized by the 2022 UCLA Life Sciences Division Excellence Award for Educational Innovation for a PhD Student. Benjamin remains a strong advocate for advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in STEM higher education. 

 

Outside of work, Benjamin enjoys playing video games, playing recreational dodgeball, relaxing at the beach, and taking care of his plants. He is also a former hip hop dancer and band geek (colorguard to be exact!). Benjamin is a native to the bay area in NorCal, but has happily lived in LA for over 10 years now.

 

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