July 1, 2024 marked Stella Lee’s first day as an Assistant Professor of Teaching in Physiology in the Department of Zoology at UBC. Stella first started teaching at UBC in 2017 and has been a Lecturer since 2020, primarily teaching the undergraduate course BIOL 331 in Developmental Biology. Before joining UBC as an instructor, Stella completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at Tufts University after obtaining a PhD in Experimental and Molecular Medicine at Dartmouth. Learn more about Stella’s teaching style and about the UBC Biology program.
Tell us about your graduate school work and how your scientific interest developed during this period.
I am a physiologist by training; for my PhD, I studied the possible interaction between brainstem serotonin deficiency and prenatal nicotine exposure in the manifestation of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). A properly functioning brainstem is critical for vital life functions, such as respiration and heart rate, and we suspected that even a mild deficiency in brainstem serotonin paired with prenatal nicotine exposure could prevent an infant from responding appropriately to low oxygen levels. We still do not fully understand what causes SIDS and it is this endless unknown that keeps me motivated to work and seek answers. This is also true when it comes to my teaching; I constantly ask myself whether or not my teaching methods properly support students’ learning and what I can do to improve as an educator.
What inspired you to move from being a lab researcher to an instructor?
I learned over the years just how much I enjoy teaching. I first realized this fairly early on in graduate school when I was completing my Master's in Comparative Physiology with Bill Milsom here at UBC. I was always eager and excited to be in the classroom with students so I knew teaching will dictate my career trajectory.
What do you predict will change for you starting July 1, 2024?
As an Educational Leadership faculty, I look forward to broadening my horizon beyond just my classroom, looking for ways to not just support my students but support a larger community, e.g., at the Biology program level or even Faculty of Science. Being granted the time and flexibility to shift some of my focus to educational research is what I am most excited about.
What was the biggest lesson learned from your experience as a lecturer?
As a lecturer, I learned to value our department as the supportive community that it is. My mentors, colleagues, friends, and the students contributed in one way or another, some more than others, to help me grow and evolve to be the educator that I am today. I look forward to continuing on this journey!
With the previous experience and this new tenure track position, what are you excited and what are the challenges that you might encounter?
I suspect this new position will be accompanied by its own set of challenges (as is with any new job) but as I mentioned earlier, I am mostly looking forward to having the opportunity to think beyond my classroom and actively contribute to the larger UBC community.
Bill Milsom's lab, 2009