2024 Students’ Union Teaching Excellence Awards winners announced

The Students’ Union (SU) announced April 18 the professors, instructors, and teaching assistants being honoured through the SU’s annual Teaching Excellence Awards (TEA). Awards and honourable mentions were given to 34 exceptional members of the university community to highlight their commitment to student success over the past academic year. 

The annual TEA is the SU’s campus-wide recognition program giving undergraduate students the chance to honour and thank those instructors, professors, and teaching assistants who have supported and made a lasting and positive impression on their students. Students solely determine all nominees and winners. 

Not only did the educators being honoured navigate the challenges of the year with grace, but they also committed to going above and beyond to support and prioritize students. The impact this year’s winners have made in student lives does not go unnoticed and it is a privilege to be able to recognize their hard work with this year’s teaching excellence awards. 

The SU received at total of 1,022 nominations and shortlisted 75 educators. Award winners received an Apple Award and a framed certificate. The SU will also donate $5,000 to the Taylor Centre for Teaching and Learning in recognition of the contributions made by the award winners. 

The SU has been honouring teaching excellence at UCalgary since 1975, with the current format of TEA beginning in 1984. These funds are used to offer further training and workshops to UCalgary instructors and facilitate an environment where high quality of teaching becomes a standard for all students. From the start, the awards were intended to give undergraduate students the opportunity to provide feedback on the quality of the university instruction they receive. 

Learn more about the SU TEA program. The SU wishes its sincerest congratulations to all of the winners and honourable mentions. 

Teaching Excellence Award winners

• Cumming School of Medicine: Dr. Fabiola Aparicio-Ting
• Cumming School of Medicine: Dr. Patrick F. Lee
• Faculty of Arts: Dr. Eleonora Buonocore
• Faculty of Arts: Dr. Mark Machacek
• Faculty of Arts: Dr. Motilola Akinfemisoye-Adejare
• Faculty of Arts: Dr. Safaneh Mohaghegh Neyshabouri
• Faculty of Kinesiology: Dr. Saied Jalal Aboodarda
• Faculty of Law: Dr. L. Daniel Wilson
• Faculty of Nursing: Sondra Elizabeth Wesner
• Faculty of Science: Dr. Glory Chinonye Ilechukwu
• Faculty of Science: Dr. Sean Stotyn
• Faculty of Science: Dr. Stephen Lane
• Faculty of Social Work: Daniel Holinda
• Faculty of Veterinary Medicine: Marina McConkey
• Haskayne School of Business: Houston Peschl
• Schulich School of Engineering: Ayah Metwali
• Schulich School of Engineering: Dr. Anis Haque
• Schulich School of Engineering: Uttandaraman Sundararaj
• Werklund School of Education: Dr. Garry Jones

Teaching assistant winners

• Darsh Tripathi
• Dr. Arnaud Pastor
• Hasan Chawdhry
• Jayar Espejo
• Tanisha Cavell Henry

Honourable mention award

• Nazario Robles Bastida – Arts
• Shannon Clare – Education
• Dr. Peyman Yousefi – Engineering
• Dr. W. Schuyler Hinman – Engineering
• Dr. Leigh Gabel – Kinesiology
• Dr. Elizabeth Whitsitt – Law
• Dr. Alan Santinele Martino – Medicine
• Jennifer Langille – Nursing
• Brian Moorman – Science
• Parke Fontaine – Teaching Assistant