Meet the 2025 Distinguished Teaching Award winners
The winners of the 2025 Distinguished Teaching Awards.
Twelve faculty members have been chosen to receive this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor given out since 1953 to recognize some of the university’s finest educators.
“To be selected for this highest teaching honor on a campus dedicated to educational excellence is an impressive accomplishment,” Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said. “These 12 talented educators come from academic disciplines that are as different as can be — from forestry to literature to computer science — but they share a deep commitment to inspiring our students to be curious about both ideas and the vast world around them, and to preparing them to lead lives of purpose in the proud tradition of the Wisconsin Idea. I am pleased to congratulate this year’s winners and to thank them for their commitment to excellence and to our students.”
A ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. April 15 in the Great Hall of Memorial Union; campus and community members are invited to attend; RSVP by March 25.
Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor of educational psychology
Professor Katie Eklund’s teaching focuses on the field of school psychology. Photo by Sarah Maughan
Instead of teaching students the right answer for every question or situation they may encounter, Eklund works to equip them with the essential skills of how to use professional standards and ethics, as well as problem-solving skills, to expertly deliver mental health services to children, their families and educators.
Drawing on her experiences as a licensed psychologist, school mental health provider and administrator, Eklund helps connect complex theory and research to practice by sharing stories and providing real-life examples that resonate with her audience.
She balances evidence-based school psychology recommendations with the reality of implementation in schools, equipping students with the skills needed to navigate challenges that may arise. Her courses spark vibrant discussions and inspire students to pursue careers as innovative scholars, researchers and practitioners. Within her courses, students collaboratively solve hypothetical scenarios, analyze case studies and navigate ethical dilemmas, all of which foster flexible problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
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“Her excitement and enthusiasm for the field of school psychology promote excitement in students and lead students to a deep commitment to advocating for school-age student needs.”
— Professor Jennifer Asmus
Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor of communication arts
Communication arts professor Eric Hoyt teaches an Introduction to Digital Media Production class in Vilas Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller
Hoyt has three key qualities that make him a special instructor: the innovative approach he brings to the curriculum, the inclusive ways in which he helps students achieve excellence and the invaluable mentorship he provides to prepare students for success beyond the classroom.
Professor Hoyt treats his large lectures like a performance, filled with surprises and in-class activities, but it’s a finely calculated strategy to ensure student investment in the course — because they know he is invested in their learning. He builds students’ belief in themselves as creators and as communicators with a meaningful message to share.
When students struggle, Hoyt is quick to offer flexible deadlines, think of ways to make projects more manageable and, above all, discuss options in a respectful, nonjudgmental and productive manner. At the end of every semester, Professor Hoyt goes all out with his very own “Hoyty Awards” to honor the excellent work of his students following several weeks of growth in media production.
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“In our department, teaching excellence requires us to help students reach their potential with the confidence to be makers of change in whatever communications and media roles they pursue. His inclusive and invaluable approach to teaching makes it possible for Communication Arts to deliver on this mission.”
— Professor Derek Johnson
Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor of environmental studies
Professor Adrian Treves works with students Olivia Deering (wearing eyeglasses) and Molly O’Neill, as the two students check the battery power for a number of trail cameras and download captured data for use in a UW Carnivore Coexistence Lab project being conducted on private rural land near the Wisconsin Dells. Photo: Jeff Miller
Treves is a dedicated instructor, teaching courses in three countries in English, French and Spanish, with stellar reviews from his students. Many of these courses provide uniquely hands-on experiences for students through a combination of applied skills training, lectures and discussion sessions.
Treves teaches regularly on environmental planning and monitoring, animal biology and behavior, and conservation, sharing insight and experience on topics not often discussed. His focus on interactive pedagogy has allowed him to develop several service-learning projects in partnership with the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. His latest project is a unique course on open science and the reproducibility crisis in environmental studies, a seminar for graduate students and advanced undergraduates considering careers in conducting and interpreting research.
Treves has worked tirelessly to promote and expand teaching excellence across campus and has served on the university’s various committees on disability access and inclusion since 2015, including as chair from 2020-21.
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“Professor Treves epitomizes the interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching embraced by the Nelson Institute because his teaching combines both humanities and natural sciences, integrating law with human attitudes, values and human behaviors.”
— Professor Steph Tai
Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor of forest & wildlife ecology
Professor Amy Trowbridge teaches a Disturbance Ecology class in Russell Laboratories. Photo: Jeff Miller
Trowbridge offers transformative experiences for students by building inclusive learning environments, employing creative evidence-based teaching practices and research mentorships and providing authentic experiential training and learning opportunities to inspire the next generation of STEM scientists. Her teaching is rigorous, dynamic and engaging and is grounded in community-building, mutual respect and shared values.
Trowbridge seeks to engage different learning styles and comfort levels using classroom innovations such as role-playing discussions, case-study and interactive problem-solving group work, and book club discussions. Her students report that these activities are interesting, fun, interactive and highly relevant to real-world scenarios and issues.
Trowbridge’s passion for research and teaching inspires and motivates students to understand fundamental ecological concepts deeply and apply that knowledge through robust measurement techniques to address real-world problems.
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“Her approach is both rigorous and fun, capturing students’ attention through genuine enthusiasm, creativity and a command of complex material. She is a unique talent, a truly exceptional educator and mentor and, unsurprisingly, a highly valued member of our department.”
— Professor Timothy R. Van Deelen
Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor of chemistry
Chemistry professor Zachary Wickens holds a team meeting with undergraduate and graduate students working in his lab in the Chemistry Building. Photo: Jeff Miller
Wickens approaches teaching as a dynamic process, striving to continuously assess student learning in his classroom and adapt his approaches to meet students where they are. Over his years of teaching, his thoughtful approach to evaluation has transformed him from someone who simply knew chemistry into someone who can effectively guide others in mastering it.
His dynamic and engaging lecture style regularly earns him some of the highest teaching evaluation scores in the department. He manages to break down difficult concepts into something more digestible and presents them in a way that is engaging and encouraging.
He excels in helping students focus on the important things and understand how different ideas from the course connect and reinforce each other.
Wickens’ unique teaching style challenges and prepares his students to take charge of their own learning and learn to think “like scientists.” Additionally, the support he provides both inside and outside the classroom enables his students to succeed in ways that far transcend the course.
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“Zach creates an environment that is welcoming and adapts his teaching to the needs of the class. His students have been highly successful in research and in landing coveted research positions at top pharmaceutical companies.”
— Professor Samuel H. Gellman
Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Teaching Award
Professor of English and Chican@/Latin@ studies
Professor Theresa Delgadillo teaches a graduate-student level seminar in Helen C. White Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller
Delgadillo doesn’t just teach literature; she cultivates a deep appreciation for diverse voices and perspectives, empowering students to become more thoughtful, empathetic, global citizens.
Her teaching manifests a deep commitment to the interdisciplinary study of Latinx literatures, cultures and arts. It demonstrates her skill in developing students’ critical abilities to interpret Latinx literature and visual culture, and in expanding student perspectives on Latinx peoples.
Students are encouraged and invited to participate in class, being reminded to push past assumptions, test evidence and consider each text with rigor. Delgadillo cultivates a collaborative learning environment where students become familiar with one another and accustomed to engaging critically with each other’s ideas. This approach gently guides their engagement toward central literary and thematic aspects of the texts.
Her aim is to create a classroom where students develop critical thinking, learning and professional skills so that they can act in the world with both knowledge and confidence, while always carrying with them an interest in expanding and deepening that knowledge.
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“Treating the classroom as a space to build a strong sense of community, a space where students, especially first-generation students and students from historically marginalized groups, gain a sense of belonging, Delgadillo manifests an unwavering spirit of compassion for students.”
— Professor David A. Zimmerman
Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Teaching Award
Professor of geoscience
Lucas Zoet teaches the Glacial and Pleistocene Geology class in Weeks Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller
Zoet understands how diverse perspectives provide the best possible understanding of the Earth and incorporates this in the classroom. His emphasis on team-taught classes integrates his own perspective as a glaciologist with the knowledge and experience of other researchers.
As a Native American with his own distinct formative educational experience, he is attuned to the wide range of social and educational factors that influence a student’s particular learning style. His commitment to teaching and reaching the broadest possible audience in Wisconsin is illustrated by his development of an NSF-funded geoscience education program for the College of Menominee Nation.
Zoet embraces the concept of “place-based education,” using examples from the Yahara River, the lakes in Madison, Bascom Hill and the Great Lakes to explore how these and other related features came to be and how they change. Understanding features in Wisconsin allows students to engage and then extend their grasp of Earth processes to encompass the world.
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“He starts with the fundamentals and moves deliberately, ensuring that students have a firm grasp on the material and are all on the same page, together. By the completion of his courses, students can and do look at their home surroundings in a new way, one that helps them connect with the Earth, its past and our collective future.”
— Professor Michael Cardiff
Van Hise Outreach Teaching Award
Professor and community development educator
Professor Paul Roback facilitates a Real Colors workshop with leadership from the Germantown Chamber of Commerce during a professional development session hosted at the J.W. Speaker Corporation in Germantown. Photo: Jeff Miller
As a county-based Extension educator in a co-funded faculty position, Roback has connected individuals and organizations to the University of Wisconsin for more than 23 years, in both Ozaukee and Washington counties.
Roback has a national teaching reputation and is considered an eminent leader in the field of organizational development with nonprofits and local governments. He has taught more than 1,800 learners and facilitated training for more than 100 nonprofits.
His scholarship in organizational development provides clients with the necessary tools to develop and maintain high-functioning boards in their local government or organizations in both rural and urban communities. He facilitates processes to help organizations be more deliberate in fulfilling their mission, strengthen the functioning of their boards and build capacity to address community barriers and expand access. Roback’s outreach education has strengthened organizations and increased their capacity to address community issues and opportunities.
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“He is an expert facilitator and teacher who puts theory into practice in ways that embolden his learners to authentically apply what they have learned in real time inside their local communities.”
— Professor Annie Lisowski
Chancellor’s Teaching Innovation Award
Professor of computer sciences
Professor Paul Barford is pictured in his office in the Computer Sciences Building. Photo: Jeff Miller
When he arrived in 2001 as a new assistant professor, Barford was the only member of the department’s faculty working in the field of computer networking. Starting in his first semester, he developed an entirely new version of the Introduction to Computer Networks undergraduate course, which continues to be taught to this day.
He has since developed and taught five new courses, including Ethics in Computer Science in 2021. Barford felt it was critical to equip computer science students with a basic understanding of moral and ethical principles and the ability to reason about the technologies they will develop. His work in creating this class also lays the groundwork for future course development in this area. As fields like computing ethics and AI ethics continue to grow, there is a need for courses that can introduce students to these issues.
The course fulfills the Wisconsin Idea, identifying a public need faced by our students as they graduate into society and then educating them on how to meet that need.
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“Paul perfectly embodies the ideal of a world class researcher who is equally gifted and dedicated as a world class teacher.”
— Professor Stephen J. Wright
Emil H. Steiger Teaching Award
Professor of bacteriology
Student Anna Strunets, left, asks a question of Professor Kerri Coon following Coon’s teaching of the Introduction to Disease Biology class in the Microbial Sciences Building. Photo: Jeff Miller
Coon’s teaching philosophy is centered on the guiding principle that educators should serve not only as communicators of information but as facilitators of independent and active learning. She teaches her students that communication and collaboration are essential skills in scientific practice. Notably, she emphasizes that these skills are learned rather than innate. In so doing, she encourages students to embrace a growth mindset for themselves and each other.
Coon developed and teaches Introduction to Disease Biology, an undergraduate course important to the offerings for the microbiology major and also a core course for the global health major. Coon focuses her rigorous curriculum on the science that underlies infection, transmission and virulence of infectious disease. The class has grown by almost 300 percent since it was first offered four years ago.
The course covers not only fundamental aspects of disease biology, but also the social, political and cultural factors that shape disease spread — supporting students to address health issues effectively and ethically in a multicultural world.
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“There is no one more deserving of this award, as Dr. Coon puts both head and heart into all that she does for the UW community writ large and for every student who is lucky enough to come into her orbit. My engagement with her in different capacities during my time at UW has given me a wealth of skills, knowledge, confidence and optimism as I embark on my post-grad life.”
– Former student Sarah Belin
Wisconsin Idea Teaching Award
Professor of civil society & community studies
Professor Jennifer Gaddis teaches a Community and Social Change class in Nancy Nicholas Hall. Photo: Jeff Miller
Gaddis is known for creating meaningful, high-impact learning experiences by providing opportunities for students to learn outside the traditional classroom and bringing community expertise into the learning space.
Students emerge from Gaddis’s courses with an enhanced understanding of social change and civic engagement and a clear sense of their role in advancing justice. Her courses provide students with not only the intellectual tools to critically engage with the world, but also the practical skills to effect real-world change.
Gaddis has a phenomenal record of outreach teaching on the topic of school food systems, helping to fulfill the Wisconsin Idea. She has given keynote presentations for high-profile state and national gatherings of school food practitioners, but more regularly presents to parent-teacher organizations, school boards, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, youth activists, community centers, book clubs and Badger Talks.
Gaddis has truly revolutionized the discourse around social policy in food justice and taught a new generation of students about the connections between civil society, democracy and how to help your neighbor when they are in need.
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“Gaddis exemplifies the Wisconsin Idea through her teaching, mentoring, research and service, each area enriching the others.”
—Associate Director Amy E. Washbush
William H. Kiekhofer Teaching Award
Professor of German, Nordic & Slavic+
Professor Claus Elholm Andersen teaches a Contemporary Scandinavian Languages class in Van Hise Hall, addressing the students in Danish. Photo: Jeff Miller
Rather than simply transmitting knowledge, Andersen invites students to grapple with the complexities of literature, encouraging them to find their own voices and interpretations.
His teaching places students and student agency at the center, fostering an atmosphere of critical thinking, mutual support, and encouragement and belonging, while always challenging students intellectually. Students are encouraged to consider issues of diversity and equity, for example, through lenses of gender, race and Denmark’s colonial history.
While he “inherited” the Tales of Hans Christian Andersen course, Andersen improved both its content and its pedagogy to make it up-to-date and vibrant. Word clouds, in-class polling, breakout discussions and visuals that complement his oral presentations are a few of the devices he employs.
Andersen continuously reminds students to connect the course material from the lives of the authors and their settings to their own lives and current events, bridging the gap between time and place.
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“Professor Andersen’s range of educational skills and expertise — his facility with teaching small and very large groups, elementary-level undergraduate courses, graduate courses, and everything in between — is exceptional, and essential for the success of our undergraduate and graduate programs.”
— Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, chair, Department of German, Nordic, & Slavic+