Faculty Excellence Awards Announced

Joe Glover, Interim Provost & Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs

I am pleased to announce the winners of the university’s highest teaching and advising awards.

Victoria Pagán, a Professor of Classics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was named UF Teacher/Scholar of the Year, UF’s oldest and most prestigious faculty award.

The Teacher/Scholar of the Year award honors a professor whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized both nationally and internationally and whose teaching and mentoring are judged as exemplary. In addition to a $6,000 honorarium, winners receive an SEC Academic Consortium Faculty Achievement Award — and become UF’s nominee for the SEC Professor of the Year Award.

Three professors won UF-wide Teaching and Advising Awards. The award recognizes outstanding teachers and advisers from across the campus for excellence, innovation, and effectiveness. Winners receive a $4,000 honorarium.

Cynthia Barnett, a Senior Lecturer and Director of Climate and Environment Reporting Initiatives at the College of Journalism and Communications, was named the UF Undergraduate Teacher of the Year.

Harrison Hove, Interim Chair and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Interim Director of the Innovation News Center at the College of Journalism and Communications, was named Undergraduate Faculty Advisor/Mentor of the Year.

Paul Higgerson, Academic Advisor in the Department of Sport Management in the College of Health and Human Performance, received the award for Undergraduate Professional Advisor of the Year.

Swapna Kumar, a Clinical Professor of Educational Technology in the College of Education, was named the Online Educator of the Year.

The Online Educator of the Year award recognizes excellence in online teaching and a sustained body of exemplary online teaching practices. Kumar, who will receive a $4,000 honorarium, will serve as UF’s nominee for the State University System President’s Award for online teaching.

Please join me in congratulating the winners for their exceptional performance on behalf of UF and our students.