Dean's Distinguished Faculty Awards
- Karla Steffen
Spring 2025: Important Dates
January 20: Self-nominations/nominations due to department chair and AM
March 3: Department nominee materials due to Dean’s Office (Sonja Runberg)
The Dean's Distinguished Faculty Awards include five distinct awards, each of which is described in greater detail below, including criteria, required nomination materials, and timeline. Each department can submit up to one nomination for each of these awards.
Eligibility
With the exception of the Early Career Faculty Award, all nominated faculty must have completed at least five years of service at UT Austin. Professional-track faculty are eligible for all awards except the Early Career Faculty Award, which is for tenure-track faculty at the Assistant Professor rank only.
Nomination and selection process
COE faculty may nominate themselves or others for these awards by notifying their department chair and administrative manager by January 20, 2025. The department chair or administrative manager will share the nominees' names with the Dean's Office in early February (these names will be requested by Senior Associate Dean). Nominations will first be reviewed by departmental committees, with a single nominee for each award going forward to the Dean’s Office. Note that departmental nomination materials must be received by the Dean’s Office by March 3, 2025. The college’s Faculty Awards Committee, convened by the Dean, will make recommendations for final selection.
Awards
The five distinct Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Awards are as follows:
Dean’s Distinguished Professional-Track Faculty Award
Recognizes a COE professional-track faculty member who has compiled a distinguished record in at least two of the following areas: teaching at the undergraduate and/or graduate level, research, or service. This award is meant to acknowledge and celebrate the faculty member’s impact on the department, the college, and the field.
See more at Box: Dean's Distinguished Professional-Track Faculty Award.
Dean’s Distinguished Community Impact Award
Recognizes a COE faculty member with extraordinary achievement across their portfolios. In particular, this faculty member has compiled a distinguished record of addressing education and/or health disparities, and centering access and equitable opportunities for students, families and other stakeholders by working in close partnership with communities of practice. In bridging research and practice, the faculty member has led efforts to connect faculty, staff, and/or students in their program/department/college, the University with broader communities in Central Texas, the state of Texas, the nation, and beyond.
See more at Box: Dean's Distinguished Community Impact Award.
Dean’s Distinguished Early Career Faculty Award
Recognizes an early career tenure-track faculty member in the College of Education in their fourth, fifth or sixth year in rank as an assistant professor who has compiled a distinguished record of research.
See more at Box: Dean's Distinguished Early Career Faculty Award.
Dean’s Distinguished Research Award
Recognizes a mid-career/senior COE faculty member who has developed a distinguished record of research/scholarly contributions (the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies can grant exceptions to other research-related professionals who would like to be eligible for this award). Selection will be based on evidence of sustained excellence in research, including such things as publications (quantity and quality), grant activity, and impact and significance of research/scholarship to the field.
See more at Box: Dean's Distinguished Research Award.
Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award
Recognizes a COE faculty member in the College of Education who has compiled a distinguished record of teaching at the undergraduate and/or graduate level, and has been teaching in the college for at least 5 years. Selection will be based on evidence of sustained excellence in teaching, as evidenced by peer evaluations, participation in course and program design, instructional innovation, and student comments and ratings on CIS/CES evaluations.
See more at Box: Dean's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Please send suggested additions to this page and notifications about broken links to COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu.