2020-2021 Celebration of Teaching and Scholarship honorees

The Celebration of Teaching and Scholarship recognizes RIT’s outstanding faculty, staff, and students for their excellence in innovation, teaching, and developing the next generation of leaders.

In addition to the Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching and the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the other 2021 award winners include:

The Outstanding Teaching Award for Non-Tenure Track Faculty

• Karuna Koppula, senior lecturer, Department of Chemical Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering

The Trustees Scholarship Award

• Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering
• Gregory Halpern, professor, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, College of Art and Design

The Isaac L. Jordan, Sr., Faculty Pluralism Award

• Alan Smerbeck, associate professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts

The Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award

• Betsy Dell, professor, Department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology, College of Engineering Technology, and director, AdvanceRIT

The Innovative Teaching with Technology Award

• Lara Cardoso Goulart, visiting lecturer, School of Design, College of Art and Design

The Excellence in Student Learning Outcomes Award

Health Systems Management MS program, College of Health Sciences and Technology

• Program Director: Carla Stebbins
• Program Faculty: Richard Belloff, Chris Hyers, Sally Loughry, Jodi Lubba, Travis Masonis, William Myers, Larry O’Meal, Patricia Poteat

The Provost’s Award for Excellence in Academic Advising

• New advisor: Medina Orana, Senior Academic Advisor, RIT Kosovo 
• Experienced Advisor: Ashley Jackson, Academic Advisor, College of Health Sciences and Technology

The Provost’s Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award

• Bridget Torsey, recitation instructor and Ph.D. candidate, Mathematical Modeling, College of Science

In addition, the Celebration of Teaching and Scholarship will honor the 2020 award winners, including James Perkins, professor and director of graduate medical illustration; Michael Richmond, professor, School of Physics and Astronomy; Jeanne Christman, associate professor, electrical, computer and telecommunications engineering technology; and Josh Thorson, assistant professor, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.

The Celebration of Teaching and Scholarship event will be livestreamed and captioned at 4:30 p.m. April 14, on the Office of the Provost awards webpage.