Uchenna Emenaha is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Houston in the College of Education, Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Science Education. She also holds a master’s degree in education from Texas Southern University and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Houston Baptist University.
Uchenna is an advocate for social justice education and the use of culturally relevant pedagogy to support the needs of diverse learners. She has a variety of teaching experiences having taught elementary school, middle school science, and high school biology. She has also taught graduate-level science education courses at Relay Graduate School of Education. She is currently an Instructor in the teachHouston Program at the University of Houston teaching pre-service STEM teachers. Her research interests are culturally responsive teaching, STEM education, and science identity development. She has published multiple articles on the effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching in science courses and presented her research at regional and national conferences such as the National Association of Biology Teachers and Science Teachers Association of Texas. She is a two-time recipient of the Student Scholar Award from The National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (2017 and 2020).
In addition to combining her expertise in science with her love of teaching, she enjoys also enjoys teaching Zumba classes in her free time.