The members of the UNC Asheville faculty value teaching over all other activities, but are also accomplished scholars and significant contributors to the local and regional community. All teaching award activity (i.e. calls for nominations, review of applications) is conducted by a Teaching Awards Committee, composed of previous teaching award winners. The Teaching Awards Committee solicits nominations from students, faculty, staff, and alumni each fall and spring. Applications are reviewed and awards are bestowed each spring.
See faculty awards and endowments since 1982.
UNC Asheville Teaching Awards
Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching
2024 Recipient
Trey Adcock (Interdisciplinary Studies)
Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies
Director of American Indian and Indigenous Studies
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors instituted an award system to underscore the importance of teaching and to encourage, identify, recognize, reward, and support good teaching within the University. The Board directed that each of the sixteen campuses establish awards for teaching excellence and to identify one faculty member per year who clearly exhibits those characteristics that set them apart from the institution’s faculty as a distinguished teacher.
The Board of Governors’ Distinguished Teacher award is presented each spring in a ceremony at the Board of Governors office. Eligibility is restricted to tenured faculty who have taught at their constituent institutions for at least seven years.
Distinguished Teacher of the Year
2024 Recipient
Jackie Langille (Environmental Studies)
This is UNC Asheville’s original teaching award, announced during Spring Commencement to a member of the Faculty who is judged a “Distinguished Teacher.” A monetary award accompanies this recognition and all Distinguished Teachers are listed in the UNC Asheville catalog. This award reflects the high priority and importance placed on teaching at UNC Asheville. Any full-time faculty member (Lecturer, Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor) shall be eligible, except for those faculty who have previously won the award.
Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences
2024 Recipient
Julia Webster (Mathematics)
All full-time faculty who teach courses within a Natural Sciences division department with a rank of lecturer or higher, regardless of tenure status, are eligible for this award. The Natural Sciences Division includes the following departments: Atmospheric Sciences, Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Studies, Mathematics, New Media, and Physics & Astronomy.
Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences
2024 Recipient
Giovanny Pleites-Hernandez (Political Science)
All full-time faculty who teach courses within a Social Sciences division department with a rank of lecturer or higher, regardless of tenure status, are eligible for this award. The Social Sciences Division includes the following departments: Business, Economics, Health Sciences, Interdisciplinary Studies, Mass Communications, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology & Antrhropology.
Teaching Excellence in the Humanities
2024 Recipient
Will Revere (English)
All full-time faculty who teach courses within a Humanities division department with a rank of lecturer or higher, regardless of tenure status, are eligible for this award. The Humanities Division includes the following departments: Art & Art History, English, History, Humanities, and Music.
Teaching Excellence in a University Programs
2024 Recipient
Amanda Wray (Interdisciplinary Studies)
All full-time faculty who teach courses within a university program with a rank of lecturer or higher, regardless of tenure status, are eligible for this award. University programs include the following departments: Arts & Markets, Asian Studies, Ethics & Social Institutions, Honors Program, Humanities Program, Interdisciplinary, Indigenous and International Studies, Legal Studies, Neuroscience, and Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies.
Teaching Excellence – Untenured Faculty Member
2024 Recipient
Stephanie O’Brien (Mass Communication)
All full-time untenured faculty, regardless of appointment status, with a rank of lecturer or higher are eligible for this award.
Teaching Excellence – Part-Time or Adjunct Faculty
2024 Recipient
Ashley Case (Environmental Studies)
All non-full-time faculty, regardless of appointment status, are eligible for this award.
Distinguished Scholarship and Creative Achievement Award
2024 Recipients
Megan Underhill (Sociology)
Scott Williams (Philosophy)
Distinguished Service Award
2024 Recipients
Kirk Boyle (English)
Patrick Foo (Psychology & Neuroscience)
When the University Service Council was established, its first order of business was to establish an award to recognize one of their peers for outstanding service. The award’s purpose is to foster and encourage service to the community, UNC Asheville, and their profession at large.
From the USC charge:
- Service to the UNC Asheville community contributes directly to the welfare and development of students, faculty, and staff at UNC Asheville by enhancing learning for UNC Asheville students, promoting professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, or otherwise working for the betterment of the UNC Asheville community.
- Service to the profession or academic discipline contributes directly to the advancement of learning, teaching, scholarship, or practice in that faculty member’s profession or discipline.
- Service to the wider community contributes directly to serving people in need or serving the natural environment in the wider world beyond the UNC Asheville campus: Asheville, Buncombe County, the state, the nation, and the world.
In May 2002, the First Annual University Service Council Award was presented during the last faculty meeting of the 2001-2002 academic year.
Ruth and Leon Feldman Professor
2018 Recipients
- Leah Mathews
- Ellen Pearson
Each year the full-time, ranked faculty of UNC Asheville shall select two of its members for receipt of the Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship Fund prize. This award will honor those faculty who have excelled in one or both of the following fields:
- Service to the community and UNC Asheville; and,
- Demonstrated competence in the areas of teaching, research, and published writing.
The selection of these two individuals is the responsibility of the Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship Review Committee whose composition and procedures are described in Section 10.3.4 of the Faculty Handbook. The awards are bestowed at the final spring faculty meeting. Recipients of the award will be listed in the UNC Asheville catalog in a section describing the Ruth & Leon Feldman Professorship Fund.
Endowed Professorships
Carol C. Belk Distinguished Professor in the Humanities
- Mark Gibney, Political Science
Phillip G. Carson Distinguished Professor of Natural Sciences
- Bert Holmes, Chemistry
GlaxoSmithKline Distinguished Professor in Molecular & Cellular Biology
- Thomas “Ted” Meigs, Biology
Glaxo Wellcome Distinguished Professor in Natural Science Undergraduate Research
- Mahmut Reyhanoglu, Engineering
Roy Carroll Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences Honors
- Richard Chess, English
NEH Distinguished Professor in the Humanities
- Katherine Zubko, Religious Studies
Thomas H. Howerton Distinguished Professor in Humanities
- Keya Maitra, Philosophy
Interdisciplinary Professor of the Mountain South
- Leah Mathews, Economics
Sara and Joseph Breman Distinguished Professor of Social Relations
- Lyndi Hewitt, Sociology & Anthropology
Ruth Paddison Distinguished Professor in Music
- Wayne Kirby, Music
Cary Caperton Owen Distinguished Professor in Economics
- (currently vacant)