Rachel Woods
Associate Professor of Medical Education and Lead for Year 1,
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Biography
Dr Rachel Woods is an Associate Professor in Medical Education and Lead for Year 1 at the University of Nottingham's School of Medicine. She trained at Nottingham, completing her PhD in the School of Medicine, and has returned to the University with a strong commitment to shaping inclusive, evidence-based medical education.
Her work focuses on how students are supported in the early years of medical school, particularly during the transition to university learning. Rachel is interested in how curriculum design, teaching methods, and assessment can help students become reflective, independent learners who are well prepared for clinical practice. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Alongside her work in medical education, Rachel has a longstanding research interest in nutrition and metabolic health. Her work bridges biomedical science, education, and public engagement.
Rachel regularly contributes to public and media discussions on nutrition and health. She writes for The Conversation and has written on topics including weight stigma, supplements, and the limitations of BMI as a health measure. She also writes for Doctors.net, providing evidence-based commentary for a clinical audience. Her work has appeared in The Independent, and she has contributed expert commentary on national radio.
She welcomes media inquiries and is keen to work with journalists, broadcasters, and podcast producers who are seeking clear, evidence-based perspectives on nutrition, health, and medical education.
Expertise Summary
Expertise Summary
Rachel's expertise spans medical education leadership, nutrition and metabolic health, and public engagement. Her key areas of expertise include:
- Medical education leadership and curriculum design
- Transition to medical school and early years learning
- Inclusive and innovative pedagogy
- Nutrition, metabolism, and metabolic health
- Nutrition and cancer education
- Public engagement and media communication
Teaching Summary
Rachel's teaching and learning interests are driven by a strong commitment to evidence-based pedagogy and to teaching that is inclusive by design. She is particularly motivated by the belief that how… read more
Research Summary
Rachel's current research focuses on medical education, curriculum innovation, and applied nutrition education. She is leading a collaboration with the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) to develop… read more
Rachel's teaching and learning interests are driven by a strong commitment to evidence-based pedagogy and to teaching that is inclusive by design. She is particularly motivated by the belief that how we teach medical students shapes not only their academic success, but also the kind of doctors they become.
Her work in the early years of medical education focuses on supporting students through the transition into medical school and helping them to develop as confident, reflective, and independent learners. She actively draws on contemporary educational research to inform her teaching, using active and blended learning approaches that promote engagement, understanding, and critical thinking.
A central focus of Rachel's teaching is inclusivity. She aims to design learning environments that support diverse student cohorts and foster a strong sense of belonging. She also places emphasis on inclusive teaching as a foundation for compassionate clinical practice, helping students to recognise bias, reflect on their own perspectives, and develop skills that will enable them to provide equitable care for their future patients.
Current Research
Rachel's current research focuses on medical education, curriculum innovation, and applied nutrition education. She is leading a collaboration with the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) to develop evidence-based teaching resources on nutrition and cancer for medical students. This work aims to strengthen nutrition education in the early years of medical training and to support future doctors in having informed, evidence-based conversations with patients.
She sees the development of the new medical curriculum at the University of Nottingham as an exciting opportunity for future education research and scholarly evaluation. Her research interests include inclusive teaching practices, early years curriculum design, student transition, and the use of spiral curricula to support deep and sustained learning.
Past Research
Rachel's previous research has focused on nutrition and metabolic health across the life course, with extensive hands-on laboratory experience across a range of biomedical techniques. She began her research career as part of the Genetics of Obesity study at the University of Cambridge, working with patients with severe early-onset obesity, and gained experience in physiological measurements and sample analysis.
Her PhD at the University of Nottingham, in partnership with Danone Nutricia, investigated how early-life nutrition influences metabolic health later in life, with a particular focus on brown adipose tissue as a target for reducing obesity and type 2 diabetes risk. She developed and applied a wide range of laboratory techniques, including RNA, protein and lipid extraction, qPCR, histology, immunohistochemistry and microscopy.
As a postdoctoral researcher at Loughborough University, Rachel coordinated and ran a large randomised controlled clinical trial in partnership with Yakult Honsha, investigating the effects of probiotics on metabolic responses to high-fat diets. This work involved extensive laboratory-based metabolic phenotyping, biomarker analysis, sample processing, and clinical trial management.
Future Research
Rachel's future research centres on leadership in medical education scholarship and cross-institutional collaboration. She is particularly interested in working with UK medical schools and external partners to develop, evaluate, and share best practice in curriculum design, nutrition education, and inclusive teaching.
She aims to build on established partnerships with the World Cancer Research Fund and the University of Southampton to develop national teaching resources, pursue external funding, and contribute to sector-wide leadership in medical education. While her primary focus is education research, she remains open to contributing to collaborative biomedical research.