Celebration of
Teaching Excellence
2025
Nationally and internationally recognized faculty representing 150+ years of academic excellence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Congratulatory Remarks
Message from the Chancellor
Robert J. Jones
On behalf of the leadership, faculty, students, and staff of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I extend heartfelt congratulations to our award recipients. These honors shine a well-deserved spotlight on the exceptional work of our undergraduate and graduate educators, advisors and mentors. The breadth of talent at this university continuously inspires me, and it is your contributions, passion and creativity that profoundly impact our students. You embody our mission to equip students to become innovative problem solvers who effect societal change. We recognize your dedication, and we are grateful to have you as part of the Illinois family.
Message from the Provost
John Coleman
I congratulate the outstanding faculty, aspiring faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, mentors, advisors, and support staff who are being honored with awards for their contributions to our teaching mission. The recipients of the teaching excellence awards are the driving force behind the world-class instruction that defines our university. These awards hold special significance as they reflect recognition and appreciation from your peers and students for your excellence. Your dedication and creativity ensure that our students experience transformative educational journeys that shape their futures and, in turn, the futures of their families and communities. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to excellence in this vital work.
Recognition of Awards
The Celebration of Teaching Excellence shines a light on individuals with distinguished records as teachers, advisors, and mentors. As we celebrate teaching excellence at the University of Illinois, we owe our success to our faculty: to our tenure track faculty, to our instructors and lecturers, our teaching, research and clinical professors and to our aspiring faculty, our teaching assistants. We also owe our success to our outstanding staff, who make it possible to deliver world class teaching through their support of curriculum, instruction, technology, advising, and mentoring.
These awards recognize their devotion through their work, dedication to student welfare, and true respect for our very bright and talented undergraduate and graduate students.
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
This award recognizes sustained excellence in and innovative approaches to undergraduate teaching and contributions beyond classroom instruction that have an overall positive impact on undergraduate student learning. Honorees are represented from three employee categories: Teaching Assistants, Specialized Faculty, and Faculty.
Teaching Assistants
Katherine Bunsold
Communications
Gyudae “GD” Kim
Geography/GIS
Maddy Ritter
Mathematics
Cihang Wang
Economics
Rebekah Bosley
Speech & Hearing Science
Specialized Faculty
Simona Buetti
Research Associate Professor
Psychology
Mary Rose Cottingham
Senior Instructor
English
Marisa C. Peacock
Senior Lecturer
Advertising
Eman Saadah
Teaching Associate Professor
Linguistics
Kristen DiFilippo
Teaching Assistant Professor
Health & Kinesiology
Faculty
Philip Anderson
Associate Professor
School of Integrative Biology
Juan David Arbelaez Velez
Assistant Professor
Crop Sciences
Stephanie Ceman
Professor
School of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Nathan Dunfield
Professor
Mathematics
Leslie Looney
Professor
Astronomy
Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring
This award recognizes faculty for their sustained excellence in graduate student mentoring, innovative approaches to graduate advising, and their impact on graduate student scholarship and professional development. The award is cosponsored by the graduate college.
Nathan Schroeder
Associate Professor
Crop Sciences
Rizwan Uddin
Professor
Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering
Excellence in Graduate & Professional Teaching
Recipients of this award are honored for sustained excellence and innovation in graduate or professional teaching and their contributions to graduate or professional learning beyond classroom instruction.
Joe Cohen
Associate Professor
Psychology
Stacy Dymond
Professor
Special Educatoin
Excellence in Online Teaching
This award honors excellence and innovation in online teaching, contributions to student learning through innovative uses of technology, creativity in course development and instruction, and for having had a positive influence on the quality, extent, and development of a department’s online program.
Joe Bradley
Clinical Assistant Professor
Bioengineering
Craig Lemoine
Associate Clinical Professor
Agricultural & Consumer Economics
Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research
This award honors faculty for their excellence in involving and guiding undergraduate students in scholarly research, having a positive impact on student scholarship or intellectual development, and for their innovative approaches to guiding undergraduate research.
Ruta Mehta
Associate Professor
Siebel School of Computing & Data Science
Wendy H. Yang
Professor
Plant Biology
Excellence in Undergraduate Advising
Recipients of this award are recognized for their excellence in and innovative approaches to undergraduate advising, and for having had a major impact on undergraduate students and their intellectual development through sustained academic advising relationships.
Jill Craft
Teaching Associate Professor
Food Science & Human Nutrition
Becky Stillwell
Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs
Civil & Environmental Engineering