The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has announced the five recipients of the 2025-26 Faculty Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor presented for more than 60 years to instructors at UMass Amherst who demonstrate exemplary teaching at the highest level.
 

Jenafer Andrén-Kazunas

Chef-Professor/Senior Lecturer II, Hospitality & Tourism Management

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Jenafer Andrén-Kazunas is a former College Outstanding Teaching Award winner and the head chef at the Marriott Center for Hospitality Management, where her classroom is a 200-seat, full-service restaurant on the 11^th Floor of the Campus Center. In this role, she teaches experiential food service and events courses, including a five-hour experiential lab course where students run the “Marriott Meals” restaurant. Students rotate from dishwashing, to cooking, purchasing, serving, and managing operations during their time in Andrén-Kazunas’ class, and one student noted that “[e]ven in high-pressure service situations, she remains calm, approachable, and focused on teaching rather than criticizing.” Andrén-Kazunas has also created opportunities for students to explore their career interests through independent studies at UMass and a pre-college program focused on developing student leadership skills. As one student shared, “many students leave her class with a clearer sense of career direction and a stronger belief in their own abilities.”
 

Laura Briggs

Professor, Women, Gender, Sexualities

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Laura Briggs teaches courses on race, gender, and power and is a former Team-Based Learning Fellow. In her teaching, she makes sure that student interests and experiences to lead the way while “providing an anchoring structure for their conversations and the written work I use to evaluate them.” She notes “my best teachers are …the students who share my classroom” and has designed her courses to prioritize student-facilitated activities and discussions. As one student shared, “[w]hen she asked us to speak [in class] it became clear that she wanted to hear from me—from all of her students—as individuals, not some caricature of their background, race, or gender.” These impacts extend beyond her classroom, with another student commenting that Briggs “has influenced how I approach learning more broadly, including in the sciences, by reminding me to question assumptions, consider context, and think carefully about the broader implications of knowledge.”
 

Jeffery Kasper

Associate Professor, Art

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Jeffery Kasper teaches courses that center the social, ethical, and civic practices at the heart of art and design. In his teaching, Professor Kasper focuses on guiding student development of “three interrelated capacities: critical inquiry, ethical creative practice, and civic imagination” through building intentional and inclusive learning environments and creating space for ethical and community-based collaboration. As one example, Kasper builds course structures that allow for flexibility and multiple means of engaging with course materials “so students can demonstrate learning in ways that align with their strengths.” As one student shared, “Professor Kasper is an exceptional educator because he consistently combines intellectual rigor with deep empathy and a sophisticated responsiveness to individual learning needs.” Beyond the classroom, Kasper brings this approach to his work as undergraduate program director and to his mentoring of graduate students in the Department of Art. “His efforts have strengthened the departments’ teaching culture and expanded access to inclusive instructional strategies,” one mentee shared.
 

Marc Liberatore

Senior Lecturer II, Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences

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Marc Liberatore is a former College Outstanding Teaching Award winner who teaches introductory and advanced-level courses on data structures and shares that his teaching is motivated by a core belief: “Everyone can do computer science.” In his teaching, he puts this belief into practice by building an intentional culture of inclusion that supports students’ problem-solving skills and confidence. Across multiple letters, former students shared that they still recall and return to how Liberatore welcomed them into the course and sent them off to their next experience with a reminder to “do good”. As one student shares, Liberatore’s “approachability demonstrates his dedication to ensuring we fully understand the material, creating an environment where we feel at ease seeking help and engaging in meaningful conversations.” Beyond the classroom, Liberatore has played a significant role in curriculum development for the introductory sequence in CICS that balances the needs of students across majors and colleges.
 

Rodrigo Zamith

Chair and Associate Professor, Journalism

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Rodrigo Zamith is a former Lilly Fellow, Flexible Learning Fellow, and College Outstanding Teaching Award winner. He teaches introductory courses in journalism as well as an upper-level course on data-driven journalism. As he notes, “[j]ournalism and teaching are similar in that they demand iterative, reflective work.” Across his teaching, Zamith has demonstrated his commitment to developing innovative teaching practices, including offering hybrid participation in his courses and designing open educational resources to make course materials and course engagement more accessible. Students also noted Zamith’s enthusiasm and openness were contagious and served as a model for their own growth as professionals: “Professor Zamith taught me the myth of an impartial, unfeeling journalist. When I was prepared to tuck my sensitivity away to succeed, he taught me that my heart was not a problem – that journalists who care push the important stories into the spotlight.”