Kajfez named assistant vice president in Ohio State's Office of Knowledge Enterprise
Associate Professor Rachel Louis Kajfez has been named Ohio State's new assistant vice president for talent and team development in the Office of Knowledge Enterprise. In this role, she will be responsible for building research leadership capacity at the university and providing training programs for researchers and scholars.
Kajfez also will be involved with the STEAM Factory, an organization and physical space that supports interdisciplinary collaborations.
Kajfez has extensive experience at Ohio State working on interdisciplinary teams and managing large-scale research projects. She is passionate about developing and mentoring researchers to reach their professional goals while supporting the university’s research mission to identify and train the next generation of research leaders. Broadly, she aims to enable success in academia for all through strategic, innovative, and learner-centered action.
In addition to her role in the Office of Knowledge Enterprise, Kajfez is a founding faculty member and current associate professor in the Department of Engineering Education (EED). Throughout her career, she has held a variety of leadership positions including EED associate department chair for graduate studies and research infrastructure, past lead technical program chair and steering committee member for the Frontiers in Education Conference, and associate editor for Studies in Engineering Education. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts, multiple receiving best paper awards, and remains active in her research as principal investigator for the RIME Collaborative. Her research aims to elevate and expand identity and motivation research in engineering education while ensuring quality educational enhancements in the classroom.
Kajfez is a Buckeye at heart, earning her bachelor's and master's degrees from Ohio State in civil engineering. She returned to Ohio State as a faculty member in 2013 after completing her doctorate in engineering education at Virginia Tech.
