The Distinguished Teaching Award winners for 2021 are (from left to right) Elizabeth Albrecht, Mohammad Azhar, Sophie Maríñez and Nettie (Chris) Vinsonhaler.
BMCC has some of the hardest working, innovative, and engaging faculty in the CUNY system. While BMCC is committed to promoting and recognizing excellence in teaching and learning year round, once a year there is an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty who excel in the classroom. The BMCC Distinguished Teaching Award recognizes faculty whose sustained excellence in teaching incites intellectual curiosity in students, inspires colleagues both within and outside their department, and demonstrates effective and innovative pedagogy.
Annual award winners
2020
2019
- Jose Fernandez Romero
- Chris McCarthy
- Kathleen Offenholley
- Rifat Salam
- Samuel Sloves
2018
- Sharon Avni
- Paula Field
- Janice Mahinka
- Lara Stapleton
2017
2016
- Nicholas Marino
- Chamutal Noimann
- John Beaumont
Eligibility
All faculty nominated for the award must have maintained a consistent record of outstanding teaching performance and have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to student success. Faculty eligible for nomination/application include: full-time tenured faculty, full-time tenure track faculty; full-time lecturers, and adjunct faculty with ten or more semesters of teaching at BMCC. Faculty can receive only one Distinguished Teaching Award during their time at BMCC.
Selection Criteria
In general, Distinguished Teachers will excel in a combination of the following areas:
- Ability to inspire, guide, and mentor students.
- A record of outstanding teaching effectiveness as evidenced by student testimonials and peer observations.
- Pedagogical approaches that are engaging, innovative, and intellectually rigorous and reflective of current trends in the field.
- Effective service as a mentor, collaborator, and/or consultant to faculty.
Application Process
Any member of the BMCC community, including students, may nominate an eligible faculty; nominations must be forwarded to the faculty member and his/her department chair. Nominees must inform their chair as to whether or not they will complete an application package as described below. Faculty may nominate themselves and must notify their chair as such.
Those faculty nominated by students for the 2020 award will be notified in mid-March 2021.
Faculty may email nominations to distinguishedteachingaward at bmcc.cuny.edu until 5:00 p.m. on March 31, 2021.
The deadline for applications will be April 12, 2021 (extended).
The nominee is responsible for assembling a complete application package, which must include:
- A cover sheet that includes name; rank; department; date of hire for full-time faculty; semesters taught for adjunct faculty. The cover sheet is here: DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARD – COVER SHEET 2021
- A personal statement of no more than four pages that includes name of discipline, teaching philosophy and pedagogy, and addresses how the nominee meets the selection criteria as detailed above.This statement may include descriptions of student assignments or projects, assessment instruments, and documentation of student learning.
- A current CV.
- Peer observations.
- Three letters of reference, including two from former students and one from a peer; letters must be collected by the nominee and included in the application package.
Nominees must submit complete application packages electronically, as one PDF document, to: distinguishedteachingaward@bmcc.cuny.edu Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Selection Process and Nature of Awards
Application packages will be reviewed by an ad hoc faculty committee established in the Academic Senate, and including the Associate Dean of Faculty. The committee will be chaired by a faculty member from the Academic Senate.
Up to four awards will be made annually. The Committee will recommend award recipients to the President, who will make the final determination of Distinguished Teaching Awards for the year. Recipients will be notified in early May.
Distinguished Teachers will be featured in BMCC news stories. Applicants who are not selected for awards are eligible to re-apply in future years.
