Meet the 2010 Distinguished Teaching Awardees

Each year, the University recognizes a small group of teachers through Distinguished Teaching Awards. Distinguished teaching runs deep and wide here and it is no small matter to highlight a few and not a few hundred. Those nominated all represent good, dedicated teaching—the unifying core of the UW student experience.

Following are the 2010 Distinguished Teaching Awardees. Congratulations! If you didn’t take a class with them as a student, you have an opportunity to experience their teaching on May 7 at the Distinguished Teaching Awards Showcase, where several past and present Distinguished Teaching Awardees will give mini-classes in the same way they teach current students.

Scott Alan Hauck

Scott Alan Hauck, professor
Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering
Scott Hauck has a natural talent in the classroom to enhance the student experience. He cares deeply about how his students are learning and continuously works to improve his teaching style by incorporating new instructional techniques and peer evaluations. As a result, he published what he learned and how these teaching methods, such as the application of active learning, contribute to a student’s learning process. Clearly, his dedication, commitment and passion for students is a strong indication of character as an educator. In addition to his teaching commitment, Hauck is a mentor to junior faculty, even holding weekly lunch meetings with a group of untenured faculty where they discuss various topics including funding, teaching, lab space, student concerns and time management.

Joy Williamson-Lott

Joy Williamson-Lott, associate professor
Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, College of Education
Joy Williamson-Lott, eager to continuously challenge her students as they become leaders in society, enthusiastically embraced a course she inherited and whose prior instructor was a "hard act to follow." She has continued to maintain large classroom enrollment and impressive evaluations while making the course her own. In addition, Williamson-Lott has contributed greatly to the College’s Teacher Education program—particularly to the UW Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP)—during a time of transition, though she had never taught a teacher preparation course before. Williamson-Lott speaks to her students as if they were fellow scholars; sitting among them, engaging them and drawing out their ideas. In turn, her students experience a kind of intellectual stimulation that surpasses most other classroom experiences at the University.

Cuong Vu

Cuong Vu, assistant professor
Music, College of Arts and Sciences
Cuong Vu joined the School of Music faculty in fall 2007 as assistant professor of jazz studies. Widely recognized by jazz critics as a leader of a new generation of innovative musicians, Vu has lent his trumpet-playing talents to a diverse range of artists. Born in Vietnam, he immigrated to Seattle at age six and began playing the trumpet at age 11. Vu has released four recordings and is the recipient of numerous music awards and honors. Students nominating Vu for the DTA call him "the symbol of achievement and excellence at the University of Washington." Instructing, inspiring and pushing students to their full potential, Vu is an integral part of a holistic education at the University of Washington. Vu has transformed the jazz studies program and is an invaluable asset to UW students and the jazz scene in Seattle.

Anu Taranath

Anu Taranath, senior lecturer
English, College of Arts and Sciences
Anu Taranath, a senior lecturer in English who has designed 27 new course curriculum on multicultural and postcolonial literatures and culture, also teaches in Women’s Studies, Comparative History of Ideas, Honors and has led four study-abroad seminars to Bangalore, India entitled "Explorations in Social Justice and Globalization." She has facilitated and co-facilitated numerous faculty workshops held by the Center for Curriculum Transformation on global learning goals, diversity in the classroom, pedagogy and student learning and has been a strong faculty voice for each of the last three UW Common Books. She has been named by the Seattle Weekly as one of the outstanding teachers at the UW and consistently has course evaluations in the 4.7 to 5.0 range with CEI of 7 to 9! She brings forth a vociferous passion in her work and consequently motivates students to strive to do their best. Pushing herself to be a better teacher, she brings new insight and encourages growth in students’ development as critical learners. Taranath also mentors students, many of whom are first-generation college students or otherwise institutionally disadvantaged. Such a genuine investment by a faculty member in the lives of students is a tremendous investment in the cultivation of a vibrant next generation of scholars.

Scott Freeman

Scott Freeman, lecturer
Biology, College of Arts and Sciences
Scott Freeman has a passion for teaching and student learning. His mantra is "show me the evidence that what you are doing in class is resulting in better student learning." He is dedicated to ALL students in his course learning, not just the top 25%, and incorporates in-class small group learning activities, four to five clicker questions each day, weekly written home-works and other activities to give students the practice they need to master the material. When Biology 180 was opened to the maximal class size of 700 students, Freeman volunteered to design and teach the course himself. To make the class less threatening and impersonal, Freeman made it a point to learn over 200 names of students in his class and called on them to contribute to the discussion. He offered extensive office hours and review sessions three times a week. This is also how he had been teaching Biology 180 for the past five years but with only 300 students. His course evaluations are always in the 4.8 to 4.9 range and with the 700 person course they jumped to 5.0 with a Challenge and Engagement Index (CEI) of 9 (the highest indicator of academic rigor)! Outside the classroom, Freeman is the author of a comprehensive biology text that is in its fourth edition. He is also an active member of the Biology Education Research Group and the author of three science education research articles, one of them published in Science.