CSUMB's Penalver named Best Professor by Weekly readers

Cal State Monterey Bay’s Renee Penalver has been named Best Professor in the annual Monterey County Weekly Best Of Readers Poll 2025. Penalver, an assistant professor in the psychology department, was recognized as someone who provides a supportive atmosphere for her students. 

“Penalver says she bases her approach to teaching on how she was treated while a first-generation college undergraduate … in the California State University system,” the Weekly wrote. “‘I relied on professors who took me under their wing,’ she says. Her students are mostly first-generation college students themselves. ‘I see myself in them and I think they see themselves in me.’”