Graduate TAs honored with 2025 Tanner Awards
For their excellence in educating undergraduate students, the teaching assistants receive a one-time stipend of $5,000.
In 1990, the University expanded the purview of the Tanner Awards to recognize excellence in the teaching of undergraduates by graduate teaching assistants. Each of the winners receives a one-time stipend of $5,000 and a framed citation.
David Stilwell, physics department, College of Arts and Sciences
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
My professors at the Villanova University department of physics all played an essential part in my development as a physics student. Drs. Dave Chuss, Georgia Papaefthymiou-Davis, Jeremy Carlo, Morgan Besson, Farid Zamani and Mike Hones all demonstrated tremendous passion for teaching with genuine interest in their students’ success and growth as young physicists.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
I love to learn my students’ names. It might not sound too creative, but students are surprised when I address them by name. In challenging courses like PHYS114/115, I like to let students know that they are seen and heard as one of one, not one of many.
University Teaching Awards
The University Teaching Awards annually recognize outstanding teaching and mentoring of undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni nominate deserving teachers and mentors.
Joseph Tanner Bourne, Romance studies department, College of Arts and Sciences
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
The best teachers I’ve had have all been very strong, brilliant women who always created an environment in which all their students felt safe and welcomed. My high school Spanish teacher, Mrs. Miriam Salaita, deserves particular recognition for having inspired me to chase my passion for language and culture.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
Students respond enthusiastically to games and a bit of healthy competition, so I always enjoy incorporating activities as games if possible. It could be a form of baseball for vocabulary, swatting an illustration of a fly on the board for review of grammar, but always something to get them laughing.
Dianne Mann, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
Dr. Ciara Zachary from the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She provided in-depth insight into complex health policy issues in the classroom and an opportunity for us to volunteer with local ACA Navigators. As I refined my master’s thesis, she helped me sharpen my thinking and approach.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
I enjoy offering students practical examples that connect what they’re learning in the classroom to their future professional careers. Oftentimes, I draw from experiences I have had working as a physical therapist. I also use stories and even silly examples to make complex concepts more relatable.
Clare Byers, history department, College of Arts and Sciences
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
The teacher I credit with my becoming a history major, Capt. Craig Felker, who taught naval history. I didn’t like the topic, but Felker guided students to some aspect of history that they enjoyed. For me, it was researching an 18th-century shipwreck via logs in the archive. I still study 18th-century history.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
We played a board game called Penny Dreadful. We used the penny dreadful to think about the stories average people encountered that shaped their views regarding race, gender and class in Victorian Britain. We discussed the rise of cheap print in tandem with literacy growth and train travel.
Andrew Lyons, mathematics department, College of Arts and Sciences
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
Mr. Jones, my high school physics teacher, still serves as one of my favorite teaching inspirations. His lessons were creative, memorable and fun. I was challenged, but I looked forward to each of his classes. He helped me gain the confidence to tackle hard problems, and he really cared about my success.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
When teaching propositional equivalences, I like students to identify popular statements presented with an alternative phrasing. This activity helps connect the abstract logic to something familiar, while making the learning process feel more like a game.
