John Su, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Announces Faculty Teaching Excellence Award Nominations Open for 2019
It has been a tradition at Marquette University to honor full-time faculty members each year, who are recognized by students and colleagues alike as extraordinary teachers, with the Marquette Awards for Teaching Excellence. These awards are supported by grants from the Robert and Mary Gettel Fund, the Stearns Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence G. Haggerty.
Each award citation reads in part: “In recognition of demonstrated ability to inspire students to see the ideals of the University and to cause them to grow in knowledge and scholarship for the glory of God and the good of others.”
Marquette University is blessed with many excellent teachers. Please take a few moments to review the award criteria and then submit the names of one to three full-time faculty members from any college or program whom you think merits this award. Please note that past recipients of the Teaching Excellence Awards are not eligible for nomination.
The list of previous recipients is provided at the following link: 2018 Teaching Excellence Award Recipients.
Dr. David Krause
College of Business Administration
Dr. David Krause teaches investing, but it’s the investment he makes every day in his students that earned him a Rev. John P. Raynor, S.J., Award for Teaching Excellence.
The assistant professor of practice of finance is best known as the director and architect of the College of Business Administration’s highly competitive, marquee Applied Investment Management program. Through AIM, Krause has mentored hundreds of women and men who have gone on to successful and rewarding careers.
Krause, who extends his mentorship outside the classroom to prepare students for the grit of Wall Street, also prides himself on bringing innovation into the classroom as students’ educational needs have evolved.
“This generation of young adult learners requires a more immediate connection between the course material and how it relates to the modern world,” he says. “I constantly seek to employ innovative methods and techniques to accomplish the goal of improved student learning outcomes.”
Krause says he’s flattered to receive a Teaching Excellence Award. “Thank you to my colleagues in the College of Business Administration and to my family for their support over the years,” he adds. “Most importantly, I want to thank my students who have allowed me to not only teach them, but to be a part of their lives — they have kept me young at heart.”
Dr. SuJean Choi
Department of Biomedical Sciences
Dr. SuJean “Susie” Choi, professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Health Sciences, studies the neurocircuitry of feeding behaviors — basically, how our brains make us want to eat and, more specifically, to overeat.
“We know there are many factors that cause people to want to eat,” Choi says. “Aside obviously from hunger, people have other motivations, including habit, boredom and pleasure. These are usually all wrapped up together.”
Choi says that one reason losing weight and regulating diet can be so difficult and confusing is because these multiple motivations are often simultaneously driving their eating habits and engaged all the time.
The goal of her work, and the scope of the research for which she’ll use the Way Klingler Fellowship Award — $50,000 annually for three years — is to learn how separate motivations regulate the need to fuel our bodies versus the desire to eat for reasons like pleasure or habit, which can be potentially unhealthy.
Choi’s lab is looking at natural hunger suppressing compounds in the body that signal the brain to cease hunger cravings and turn on metabolism, and what causes those compounds from losing the ability to properly trigger those signals.
Choi says the specific studies funded by this award are not included in the scope of her current grant but critically complement that work, which is why awards like the Way Klingler fellowship are so important.
“Our grants are awarded for very specific work; we can’t go beyond their parameters,” Choi says. “Sometimes, a small bit of risk can yield large benefits, however, and this award is really important to bridge those small gaps.”
Dr. Jill Guttormson
College of Nursing
Dr. Jill Guttormson, or “Dr. G” as her students fondly call her, is known for the enormous impact she has on them both inside and outside of the classroom. The assistant professor in the College of Nursing has been honored with a Rev. John P. Raynor, S.J., Award for Teaching Excellence.
“When I arrived last January in my role as dean and began meeting with faculty and students, I immediately heard about ‘Dr. G,’” says Janet Wessel Krejci, dean of the College of Nursing. “When I got to meet her in person shortly thereafter, I could understand the high praise that was coming from all.”
Guttormson teaches one of the most difficult courses in the nursing curriculum: Pathophysiology. But her students note that their anxiety is immediately put at ease once they step into her classroom. She is known for her student-centric and well-organized teaching style that builds upon her considerable expertise in the field. Guttormson’s commitment to excellence is grounded in the Jesuit tradition, which she frames as high standards, high expectations and high support for individual needs of the students.
She also teaches Nursing in the Jesuit Tradition, a beginning course and one that is critical to developing the Marquette Nurse identity during the early stages of a student’s career. “It is such a joy to teach students at this early level, to see their understanding of nursing grow and evolve, and to see them make the clear connections between nursing, cura personalis and servant leadership; understanding and connections that will be deepened throughout the nursing program,” she says.
Guttormson commits an enormous amount of her time to both service and research. She has been published every year in high-tier academic journals and is active in both nursing and medical profession organizations.
Dr. Andrew Kunz
Department of Physics
If you are an undergraduate physics student and want to collaborate on research, your first stop should be with Dr. Andrew Kunz. He has high expectations, but there’s also plenty of opportunity.
The recipient of the Robert and Mary Gettel Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence has published 10 peer-reviewed papers co-authored by undergraduate students. Coincidentally, 10 undergraduate students have co-authored papers with Kunz. He believes in active learning concepts and implements them at all levels
of instruction.
“Students need to be responsible and held accountable for their own learning,” Kunz says. “They need to be given opportunity to succeed, and to fail, and
that there needs to be layers of support in their quest to learn — from outright assistance to fading away — all with a relationship built on mutual respect of our various roles in the classroom.”
Two of Kunz’s undergraduate students have given oral presentations at major national meetings, and 13 have presented their work at area meetings, colloquia and poster sessions, and/or as posters at national meetings.
Kunz, an associate professor of physics, has received a STAR award from the Mutual Fund Education Alliance for positively affecting the lives of students, and has attended five conferences focused on teaching (one included a teachers workshop and one was devoted to the work of undergraduate women in physics).
“Andrew has a clear commitment to the furtherance of our undergraduate students,” says Dr. Brian Bennett, chair and professor of physics. “He doesn’t just talk the talk. He walks the walk.”
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