Board of Regents Honors UT Austin Faculty for Excellence in Teaching

The Board of Regents of The University of Texas System has chosen 28 faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin to receive 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards, its highest teaching honor. The awards program is one of the nation’s largest monetary teaching recognition programs in higher education, honoring outstanding performance in the classroom and dedication to innovation in undergraduate instruction.

A total of $2.4 million will be awarded to educators from the UT System’s 15 academic and health institutions during a ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 20, at the Shirley Bird Perry Ballroom in the Texas Union at UT Austin.

“Our excellence in teaching faculty is a critical part of the System’s vision of an institution of the first class,” said UT System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. “These awards are a reflection of the Regents placing the highest priority on undergraduate, graduate and professional teaching excellence System-wide.”

Established in 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards program recognizes educators who deliver the highest quality of instruction in the classroom, the laboratory, the field or online.

Faculty members undergo a series of rigorous evaluations by students, peer faculty members and external reviewers. The review panels consider a range of activities and criteria in their evaluations including outstanding teaching, mentoring, personal commitment to students and motivating students in the classroom.

“UT Austin places a very high value on classroom teaching,” said UT Austin President Bill Powers. “I am pleased that the UT System is recognizing these 28 individual faculty members for their performance as teachers and their commitment to their students.”

The 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards recipients from The University of Texas at Austin are:

• Byron Almén, associate professor of music theory
• Lorenzo Alvisi, professor of computer science
• Jane Arledge, lecturer in the Department of Mathematics
• Judith Birdsong, lecturer in the School of Architecture
• Paul Bommer, Chevron Lecturer in Petroleum Engineering and senior lecturer in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
• Kevin Cokley, director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis and professor of educational psychology and African and African diaspora studies
• Lucien Douglas, associate professor of acting
• Caroline Frick, assistant professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film
• Tamie Glass, assistant professor of interior design
• Julia Guernsey, associate chair of the Department of Art and Art History and professor of art history
• Julie Hardwick, professor of history
• Neal Hall, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Robert Jensen, professor in the School of Journalism
• Barbara L. Jones, assistant dean for Health Affairs, co-director of the Institute for Grief, Loss, and Family Survival and associate professor in the School of Social Work
• Dave Junker, director of the Senior Fellows Honors Program in the Moody College of Communication and lecturer in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations
• Brad Love, assistant professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations
• John Murphy, Joe C. Thompson Centennial Professor and University Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations
• Leslie Mutchler, director of the Foundations Program and associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History
• Kumar Muthuraman, associate professor in the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management and Department of Finance
• George Pollak, professor of neuroscience
• Elaine Rich, distinguished senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science
• Daron Shaw, University Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Government and Frank C. Erwin, Jr., Centennial Chair in State Politics
• James Scott, assistant professor of statistics
• Sean Theriault, University Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Government
• Sean Thompson, senior lecturer in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations
• David A. Vanden Bout, professor in the Department of Chemistry
• Jo Worthy, professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
• Veronica Young, director of Interprofessional Education and Community Engagement and clinical associate professor in the College of Pharmacy