Professor Spotlight Spring 2026: Dr.Marina Ellefson

I grew up in the Sacramento area and am a first-generation college student. I earned both my B.S. and PhD. From UC Davis, I have experienced the campus as an undergraduate student, graduate student, and now faculty in the same department that I was an undergraduate and now teaching the classes I took when I was a student. See pics from my undergraduate graduation (2007) to faculty speaker at the recent 2025 Spring Commencement! 

1.     How did you decide to study Genetics? As the first in my family to attend college and coming from a high school and community that did not prepare me well for college, I was completely lost and uninformed in my ‘decision’. I entered UCD as a biomedical engineering major because it sounded like a good area to pursue for a future career. I realized quickly in my first quarter when taking a required 1-unit Intro to Biomedical Engineering seminar, that it wasn’t the major for me. The major requirements were quite intense and rigid, which had me concerned about my ability to work to support myself and manage course loads. I was also very intimated and lacked confidence in my ability to thrive in engineering. I switched to genetics because the classes sounded interesting, biology was my favorite class in high school, and I thought genetics was interesting due to its medical relevance. It wasn’t until getting to my upper-division genetics classes, specifically BIS 101, that it became reinforced how much I really do enjoy genetics. I loved the problem-solving approaches and understanding the fundamental mechanisms of how living things develop and function.

2.    How have your past experiences prepared you for working at UC Davis/ Did you have any other jobs?  All of my work experiences have prepared me in different ways for working at Davis. I have worked consistently since I was 15 yo. In high school I was a lifeguard, staff at a summer day care for kids, and a busser at a local restaurant. In college, I supported myself by serving and bartending in the evenings and weekends at a busy restaurant in Sacramento. Working in food service helped me develop skills in working with diverse people, on teams, in high-stress environments that require multitasking under pressure, and importantly skills needed in service jobs, which I view myself as in service to my students. After completing my PhD at UC Davis, I was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley for three years where I did genetics and cell biology research. During that time, in addition to having two children, I started teaching at Laney College, a community college in downtown Oakland and developed and taught genetics courses for UC Berkeley Extension. It was during this time that I started to develop and hone my teaching skills and pedagogical approaches.

3.    What about teaching at UC Davis do you love? The students and the amazing opportunity to positively impact others. It truly is a privilege and honor to work with so many students, who I am constantly impressed and inspired by. I love helping students realize their potential and build their confidence. I love being able to guide students through the process of learning, where a subject seems hard, confusing, intimidating at first but then journeying together and ending at a place where the subject seems less confusing, and in the best cases interesting and exciting. As a teacher, while it is important to teach the content of my class, I believe that my biggest responsibility is to help students build strong habits for deep learning. I enjoy helping students build appreciation for the hard and frustrating process of learning, developing confidence that they are equipped with the skills and resources to master learning, regardless of topic. I also love helping students experience a positive class community where learning is recognized as a social process deeply rooted in interaction and collaboration.

4.    Besides being a professor, what are some outside hobbies that you enjoy right now? When I’m not on campus, I spend most of my time with my family being the best mom and partner I can be while constantly chasing a sustainable work/life balance.  I have a 10 yo (Drew), 12yo (Lyla), and 120lb dog (Jarvis) that keep me plenty entertained and busy, along with my partner Larry (aka LarBear). I have been into weightlifting for 9 years, you can find me deadlifting at the gym at 5am on weekdays (it’s the only time I can consistently get to the gym). I also really love to cook and garden, and I absolutely love Lake Tahoe in the summer!

 5.    What would students be surprised to find out about you?  I think that since my first experience at UC Davis was as an undergraduate student, I still identify most as just that. I walk into classrooms and get instantly flooded with memories of the classes I have taken in them. I care deeply about the wellbeing and success of my students, and I am always nervous on the first day of class. . Sometimes, I’ll go to class before the first day to get in the zone and make sure I know all the tech is working. I will blast Alicia Keys in the empty lecture hall to make it more my space (see selfie from last Spring 2025) and made sure to test out the sound system before I taught in Mondavi with my favorite Spotify playlist.

 6.    What is the best piece of advice anyone has given you? To pause and be intentional in defining what success is for you. Make sure that you have full ownership of what success is for you and that it is not bound by the definition of what success is for others (peers, family, etc). This will ensure that achieving success is measured by your internal fulfillment and not measured by external validation.