Meenal Rana

Meenal Rana serves as a professor in the Department of Child Development at Cal Poly Humboldt. She has approximately 20 years of experience in education and was appointed assistant professor in 2013 after serving as a visiting assistant professor at Brown University for a year. Prior to that, she worked on her doctorate at Michigan State University, having completed her master's degree in child development in India and arriving in the United States in 2005. Rana received the university-level Teaching Excellence Award in 2022. She is the chair or co-chair of the Diversity Science Initiative, a subcommittee of the Society for the Study of Human Development, and collaborates with the Environmental and Social Science Research Organization on projects, including leading 8 Cal Poly Humboldt students in an 11-week environmental initiative in rural Indian communities. Her father, a university professor in India, inspired her to pursue a career in academia. Her husband and brother supported her Ph.D. education during the first two years.