Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching

The Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching is presented annually to an outstanding faculty member from each UM System institution. Nominees must demonstrate effective teaching, commitment to high standards of excellence, sustained success in nurturing student achievement, and significant innovation as an educator.

The UM System President will recognize the four award recipients (one from each campus) at the June Board of Curators meeting.

The Campus Faculty Award selection committee will receive and review all nominations and will present its recommendation to the Chancellor for final approval. 

Submit A Nomination

All nomination materials should be collected into a single .pdf file uploaded using the "submit a nomination" button no later than 5:00 pm on Monday, March 10, 2025.
  1. Nomination letter (1,000 words max).
  2. List of courses taught, the number of students in each, and CET/SET scores and response rates for the past five full academic years (fall 2019-spring 2024). Courses Taught Template
  3. Statement of nominee’s philosophy of teaching, explicitly outlining teaching goals, teaching strategies, and methods of bringing one's current research, scholarship, or creative activity into the teaching process. Statement should not exceed 1,500 words.  The nominee may wish to include some of the following information in the statement:
    1. Innovative techniques developed to assess student learning and provide feedback.
    2. A description of a created course or a revised curriculum.
    3. Concrete examples of effective mentoring techniques.
    4. Innovative teaching techniques shared with other teachers.
    5. Description of efforts to teach effectively in different modalities (in person/online synchronous/online asynchronous).
    6. Steps taken to extend the learning process beyond the classroom.
    7. Creative ways teaching draws upon one’s research or public service.
    8. Contributions to peer discussions of teaching and learning and/or class design through publications, presentations, web-based resources, etc.
    9. Evidence of impact at the regional, state, or national level.

 The following materials may be submitted to support the nomination, but are not required: 

    1. Peer evaluation report through the Peer Evaluation of Teaching (PET) Program run by the Faculty Senate Committee for Effective Teaching and coordinated through CAFÉ.
    2. Up to three letters of support from colleagues, former students, or others able to offer insight into nominee’s effective teaching.  These letters must have been written within the last two years and may, with the writer’s permission, may be repurposed from a previous nomination packet for the campus Faculty Teaching Award.
    3. Course syllabi from two different courses taught in the past five years

 

2024: Joshua Schlegel
2021: Jessica Cundiff
2020: Wayne Huebner
2019: Kelvin Erickson
2018: Stephen Gao
2017: Xiaoping Du
2016: Diana Ahmad
2015: David Riggins
2014: V.A. Samaranayake
2013: Ron Frank
2012: John McManus
2007: Kent Peaslee
2004: Tom Akers
2003: Abdeldjelil “DJ” Belarbi
2002: J. Keith Nisbett
Nord Gale
Frances “Dee” Haemmerlie Montgomery