“Transformative” is one of the descriptions repeated again and again in the enthusiastic letters University of Virginia students, faculty members and deans submitted for this year’s teaching award winners.

These professors – some who have been on Grounds for more than 10 or 20 years, and some who have joined the UVA community more recently – act as intellectual travel guides, as one student put it, enabling others to take important steps on their individual journeys of self-discovery and academic success. Their guidance, however, goes beyond the classroom to significantly influence the trajectories of students’ lives.

The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost issues a call for nominations each fall and administers the teaching awards, with the exception of the National Endowment for the Humanities professorships, a program of UVA’s Center for Teaching Excellence. The teaching award winners were honored at a Thursday evening banquet.

In addition, the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs annually administers All-University Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards. Departments are invited to nominate one or more candidates for graduate teaching awards.

Graduate teaching assistant awards went to: Nathan Brunelle, computer science; Caitlin Fitzpatrick, English and creative writing; Molly Kelly-Goss, biomedical engineering; Paromita Sen, politics; Brittany Sutherland, biology; and Christopher Maternowski, history. Dr. Carina Brown of the Family Medicine Residency Program received the School of Medicine’s Resident Teaching Award.

The 2017 faculty honorees:

Psychology Professor Robert E. Emery, Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship

Chemistry Professor Cassandra Fraser, Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award

Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Gary Koenig, Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Greg Schmidt Goering, NEH Daniels Family Distinguished Teaching Professorship

Associate Professor of Chinese Hsin-hsin Liang, Excellence in Education Abroad

Professor of Education James Wyckoff, Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award

All-University Teaching Awards

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Timothy Allen

Associate Professor Dorothe Bach, Center for Teaching Excellence

Assistant Professor of Public Policy Eileen Chou

Associate Professor of Management Amanda Cowen

Assistant Professor of Biology Robert Cox

Associate Professor of Architecture Phoebe Crisman

Associate Professor of Education Nancy Deutsch

Professor of Law Leslie Kendrick

Professor of Business Administration Frank Warnock

This article was written by Anne E. Bromley and originally appeared on UVA Today. 

The full story can be accessed here.