The Faculty Senate Teaching Enhancement Committee and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) announced the 2015-16 UNM Teaching awards recently, honoring educators from around UNM. Every year the Faculty Senate Teaching Enhancement Committee selects the recipients based on their outstanding work in education.The awardwinners included three members eaqch from the English and Sociology Departments who were recognized for their teaching excellence at the Center for Teaching Excellence awards ceremony.
In the English Department, Zoe Speidel garnered a Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistant award, for her teaching of Core Writing courses. Speidel is graduating this May with her MA in Rhetoric and Writing. Her research interests include developmental composition, college-level reading, and online composition pedagogies, as well as teacher preparation and curriculum alignment between K-12 and college. She will be teaching Integrated Reading and Writing for CNM’s School of Adult and General Education in the fall.
Cristyn Elder earned the New Teacher of the Year Award, which recognizes the teaching excellence of pre-tenure faculty. The award values Elder’s excellence in teaching of undergraduate students, her preparation of graduate students teaching in the Core Writing Program, and her work with faculty across the disciplines on integrating writing as a tool for learning.
Elder has previously been recognized by the Center for Teaching Excellence with a 2014 Teaching Fellowship and by Student Affairs with the 2015 Golden Louie Award for Outstanding Student Service Provider by Faculty. Elder, with her colleague Dr. Beth Davila, is also a recipient of the Council on Basic Writing’s 2016 Award for Innovation for the creation of UNM’s Stretch/Studio Composition Program.
Jesse Alemán received the university’s highest recognition for effective teaching—the Presidential Teaching Fellow Award. Fellows carry the special responsibility for ensuring teaching excellence by sharing their expertise with the UNM community. The English Department’s Director of Literature, Alemán teaches courses in 19th-century American literature, Chicana/o literature and culture, and classes on literary theory.
He has directed almost a dozen doctoral ALS students to matriculation and currently directs half a dozen more. The Presidential Teaching award caps his list of teaching recognitions, which include a STARS award from American Indian Student Services, the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence, and the Peer Mentoring for Graduate Students of Color award for outstanding faculty member.
In the Sociology Department, Maria Velez was one of the recipients of the 2015-16 Outstanding Teacher of the Year, while Ryan Goodman and Colin Olson were recognized with the 2015-16 Lecturer or Affiliated Teachers of the Year.
For a complete list of winners, visit Teaching Awards.