Distinguished Teaching Legacy Award

Bringing real-world examples to her courses, Shauna Elbers Carlisle, an associate professor at UW Bothell, engages her students in larger questions of social justice and encourages their community-based learning. Elbers Carlisle, ’02, ’10, learned about community service from her parents, immigrants who helped establish an organization for the Caribbean community in Manitoba. Her parents’ civic engagement included her mother’s membership in a nurses’ union during the historic Manitoba nurses strike. As a co-developer of a community-based learning scale, Elbers Carlisle worked with colleagues to gauge the long-term effect of community-based learning on students’ civic engagement, which is used by UW Bothell to measure civic engagement, self-awareness and critical thinking.

Read an appreciation in University of Washington Magazine.

During his six decades at the UW, John C. Berg has earned a reputation as one of the University’s most beloved professors. A common refrain among his students: “John is the best teacher I ever had.” He is a role model for dedication, unpretentiousness and sincerity. His teaching, mentorship and support of students is unmatched.

The best educators don’t just teach in the moment. Their words and discoveries sit in the minds of their students, waiting to be unpacked years or even decades later. Such was the impact of College of Education Professor Emeritus Ken Sirotnik. “Those who were committed to creating change always had a friend in Ken,” says nominator Andrew Grzadzielewski, ’05, “Especially when the going got tough. Knowing that Ken was rooting for you made a tough job a little easier.”

He may no longer be with us, but Anthony Ishisaka’s impact on legions of UW students as well as all of Western Washington shines as bright as ever. The longtime associate professor in the School of Social Work was renowned for his love of teaching, mentoring and caring. Born at the Granada War Relocation Center in Colorado in 1944, he experienced injustice. It informed his sense of justice throughout his life and inspired him to co-found the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, the Seattle-based nonprofit that is one of the largest social-service providers for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders anywhere. To this day, his impact at the UW continues to be felt through the curriculum he created to train social workers how to respond to and interact with vulnerable populations dealing with chronic mental illness.