By Western Nevada College
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Rebecca Bevans has been a faculty member at Western Nevada College since 2017, and it hasn’t taken long for her to be recognized with one of the most prestigious higher education honors in the state.
WNC’s psychology professor has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Nevada Regents’ Teaching Award — an honor presented by the Nevada System of Higher Education on March 4 at its quarterly meeting in Henderson.
“It is wonderful to be recognized for my hard work and dedication to our students,” she said. “It is because of the support from my colleagues and fellow collaborators that I am able to do what I do. I am very grateful for that support and for this award.”
Some of the psychology courses she leads are Introduction to Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Child Development, Psychology of Adolescence and Social Psychology. Although Bevans became a full-time faculty member in 2017, she has been teaching at WNC since 2007.
“Teaching is exciting to me,” Bevans said. “Students arrive with questions and we work on finding answers. I love assisting them in their acquisition of knowledge. My students don’t only learn about psychology, but they also learn more about themselves.”
Bevans serves as the adviser for the Psychology and Nerd Herd (a club for homeschool students who attend WNC). Bevans also is the coordinator for homeschool students and has helped dramatically increase enrollment for those students.
In 2019 she brought former NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk to campus to talk to the community about mental health issues. As the Healthy Campus Committee chair in 2016, she was instrumental in the implementation of the no-tobacco policy on WNC’s campuses.
Forbes Magazine featured Bevans in 2019 for her work on the consumption of food dyes. To name just a few of her community endeavors, Bevans volunteers at the Nevada State Railroad Museum and for Sassabration, a community diversity celebration.
Prior to becoming a professor at WNC, she was a very successful adjunct faculty member at the college. And, yes, she did that very well, too. For the 2016-17 school year she was voted Adjunct Faculty Member of the Year.
Bevans earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Psychology (Cognitive and Brain Sciences) at the University of Nevada, Reno.
