Six faculty members honored with Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards

Six faculty members at UT Southwestern have been recognized by the UT System Board of Regents for their exceptional teaching skills and innovation in the classroom and the laboratory.

The Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards, the highest honor granted by the Board of Regents, were created in 2008 to acknowledge exceptional undergraduate teaching by UT System faculty. In 2012, the award program was expanded to include graduate-level faculty at UT System health institutions.

In all, 56 educators across the UT System’s eight academic and six health institutions were honored Aug. 23 in Austin. The UT Southwestern honorees are:

Dr. Aditee Ambardekar
Dr. Aditee Ambardekar
Dr. Elizabeth Brickner
Dr. Elizabeth Brickner
Dr. Laura Lacritz
Dr. Laura Lacritz
Dr. Craig Rubin
Dr. Craig Rubin
Dr. Lona Sandon
Dr. Lona Sandon
Dr. Alisa Winkler
Dr. Alisa Winkler

“I am delighted that these exceptional faculty members have been honored for the passion and dedication they bring to the teaching and training of UT Southwestern students, the physicians, scientists, and caregivers of tomorrow, ” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern. “We appreciate their commitment to our educational mission and are grateful for their contributions as exemplary teachers.”

“The Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards program is one of the nation’s largest to honor exceptional instruction in the university classroom,” said UT Board of Regents Chairman Paul Foster. “It is a reflection of the value the University of Texas System and the Board of Regents place on extraordinary teaching and student success, and it represents our profound appreciation to these wonderful educators and the life-changing impact they have on students at UT institutions.”

As part of the award, each honoree received $25,000. Since the program’s inception, nearly $18 million has been awarded to more than 700 UT System educators. To date, 47 UTSW faculty members have been honored.

The Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards recognize both tenured and tenure-track educators for work in the classroom, in the laboratory, in the field, or online. Nominees are vetted by their peers, students, and presidents at the institutions before advancing to competition at the System level. In evaluating teaching performance, a review panel considers criteria that include classroom expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development, and student learning outcomes. 

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Dr. Brickner holds the Charles B. Mullins, M.D. Professorship in Clinical Practice and Teaching in Cardiology.

Dr. Podolsky holds the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration, and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science.

Dr. Rubin holds The Margaret and Trammell Crow Distinguished Chair in Alzheimer’s and Geriatric Research, the Seymour Eisenberg Distinguished Professorship in Geriatric Medicine, the Sinor/Pritchard (Katy Sinor and Kay Pritchard) Professorship in Medical Education Honoring Donald W. Seldin, M.D., and the Walsdorf Professorship in Geriatrics Research.