South SFV Today

Four instructors, nominated by their peers, have been selected as the inaugural recipients of Stanford’s new Lecturer’s Award for Teaching and Undergraduate Education.

The award winners for 2023-24 are Cathy Haas, Aleta Hayes, Jamie Imam, and Elizabeth Kessler. Administered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE), the annual honor seeks to recognize distinguished teaching, curricular innovation, outstanding mentoring and advising, and overall contributions to undergraduate education and the university’s academic mission. This award is intended for lecturers who work with undergraduates or who have been appointed within the undergraduate schools.

“I am enormously pleased to celebrate the winners of the inaugural Lecturer Award for Teaching and Undergraduate Education,” said R. Lanier Anderson, interim vice provost for undergraduate education. “This major university-level prize recognizes the creative and powerful work that lecturers do with and for our students every day. And the first group of winners represent both the range of contributions lecturers make, and their indispensable role in the undergraduate education we deliver – from creating community and excitement in individual classrooms to reshaping the curricula of entire departments and programs in more effective ways.”

A newly created Lecturer Award Committee, established earlier this year by Anderson, designed the selection process, solicited nominations, and chose the first cohort of award recipients.

“Each one of these awardees has taught me something important about what it is to be an educator, and I am deeply grateful for the commitment, purpose, and insight they have brought to our students and our mission over many years,” Anderson added.

Cathy Haas is an advanced lecturer in the Language Center within the School of Humanities and Sciences. She has taught American Sign Language (ASL), linguistics of ASL, and Deaf studies at Stanford for 44 years. She began her Stanford career in the Psychology Department where she worked on a research project focused on communicating through sign language with Koko, a gorilla – a project that developed into a nearly five-decades-long interspecies communication study offering insight into gorillas' intellectual, emotional, and empathetic capacities.

“I love teaching and I love helping people learn sign language so they can communicate better with Deaf and hard-of-hearing people,” Haas said. “Many of my students have also gone on to become professional interpreters and teachers at Deaf schools.”

Aleta Hayes is a senior lecturer in dance coordination within Stanford's Department of Theater & Performance Studies. She is also founder & artistic director Chocolate Heads Movement Band – collaborative transdisciplinary performance troupe based on campus.

“As a Stanford alumna," Hayes stated "I find teaching highly satisfying yet humbling; learning from students’ intellects & talents inspires pedagogical processes." She emphasized collaboration-driven outcomes' rewarding nature: each season expands methods connecting across disciplines engendering student communities."

Jamie Imam teaches biology as an advanced lecturer holding PhD genetics from Stanford School Medicine additionally directs Biology Honors Program while consulting Center Teaching Learning."I’m honored humbled part incredible educators," expressed Imam."This highlights invaluable fellow instructors' efforts sometimes unrecognized beyond local impact," adding ultimate hope positively influencing journeys colleagues witnessing small gestures lasting impacts striving bring care work."

Elizabeth Kessler focuses visual culture American Studies Program School Humanities Sciences authored Picturing Cosmos Hubble Space Telescope Images Astronomical Sublime thrilled honored teaching award stating gaining much interactions undergraduates preparing courses considering herself host ten-week conversation setting table inviting joining keeping lively engaging best moments unexpected conversational directions taken students.