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SPHHS Names Outstanding Teacher Award Winners
The School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) announced nutrition senior lecturer and undergraduate program director Claire Norton as the recipient of its 2019-20 SPHHS College Outstanding Teacher Award. The award is given annually to one SPHHS faculty member who demonstrates excellence and creativity in teaching, a positive impact on their students and a mastery of their subject. The College Outstanding Teaching Award program is co-administered by the UMass Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning.
In addition, the SPHHS named Sofija Zagarins, visiting lecturer in nutrition, the winner of its Outstanding Online Teacher Award and biostatistics doctoral student Joshua Nugent as the inaugural recipient of its Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award.
The selection committee noted Norton's “commitment to theory-to-practice teaching, which is reflected in her classroom teaching, mentoring and the direction in which she has steered the undergraduate and dietetics programs during her tenure in the department.” In her nomination letter, one student wrote, “Claire Norton is a wonderful professor and an even better person…. She carries herself with poise and a friendly demeanor that make her the perfect person to talk to about nutrition, plans after college and life. I could not be more thankful to have had Claire Norton as a professor and a role model. If there is any outstanding teacher in SPHHS it is certainly her.”
“I am delighted, honored and grateful to the many students who I heard sent in their written support,” says Norton. “That in and of itself is enough reward for any instructor.”
During the 2019-2020 academic year, Norton taught the courses Nutrition for a Healthy Lifestyle, Introduction to Dietetics and the Nutrition Care Process, and Eating Disorders.
Zagarins served as an instructor in the online M.P.H. in nutrition program and taught the online course Nutritional Epidemiology during the 2019-2020 academic year. She was cited for shedding light on lesser-known concepts and helping students to understand the value and application of them.
Nugent served as a graduate teaching assistant for Intro to Biostatistics, taught by biostatistics lecturer Scott Chasan-Taber, for the past four semesters. The selection committee unanimously selected him for the award, noting that his teaching philosophy thoughtfully addressed widespread math phobia, engagement in 200-student courses, and resource allocation between professors and teaching assistants. Fourteen students wrote in support of Nugent’s nomination; they described him as being well-regarded among undergraduate students for his teaching flexibility, skill and “for being someone who made it worth waking up for a 9 a.m. class.”