Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Highlights from Celebration of Teaching 2025

March 31st, 2025

Celebration of Teaching seeks to recognize the achievements of Libraries, University, and external teaching award winners from the 2024–25 academic year. This year, 17 Libraries faculty members presented lightning talks on their innovative teaching methods, and 10 award winners were recognized at the event for their contributions to teaching.

Those who presented and the topic of their presentations include:

• Annette Bochenek, Business Librarian Use of Primary Sources in Instruction
• Chao Cai, Context Matters: Reflections on Teaching Evidence Synthesis
• Bert Chapman, Researching the U.S. Senate Presidential Nominee Confirmation Process
• Melissa Chomintra, Body Mapping
• Rachel Fundator and Clarence Maybee, SPIRaL: ​ Student Partners for Information Research and Literacy​ Undergraduate Research Program
• Matthew Hannah, Paranoid Pedagogy
• Heather Howard, Forming Changes
• Kristin Leaman, Partnering with a Student Pedagogy Advocate (SPA) in ILS 595
• Samantha LeGrand, Pedagogical Co-Creation: The Potential of Student-Instructor Partnership in the School of Information Studies
• Jing Lu, Enhancing Student Engagement with AI: Using Magic School’s YouTube Video Questions
• Zoe Mayhook, Developing a Business Case for MGMT 175: Leveraging AI for Secondary Market Research
• Innocensia Owuor, Meet & Greet: An Insightful Student Engagement Strategy
• Pete Pascuzzi, Adapting to Student Needs in R for Molecular Biosciences
• Jason Reed, Chelsea Baker, Zoona Ahmed, Final Project Poster Expo
• Stephanie Schmitz, Laying the Foundation: A Staggered Approach to Building Archival Research Skills
• Gang Shao, Teaching with Purdue Online
• Jerilyn Tinio, Using Copilot to Support Student Leadership in the Asynchronous Classroom

This year’s teaching award winners were also recognized, including:

Teaching Academy membership

The Teaching Academy strives to bring together the best teaching faculty and graduate students across campus to create a collective voice for teaching excellence. Members are nominated and selected by their peers, and membership recognizes outstanding and scholarly teaching in graduate, undergraduate, or engagement programs of Purdue University.

New members: Pete Pascuzzi and Dave Zwicky

Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship Awards Program

The Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship Awards Program fosters continued excellence of teaching and learning, and facilitates the development of faculty members’ teaching potential. Junior fellows’ goals are to improve their teaching and develop mentorship skills in the program, and senior fellows are tasked with mentoring junior fellows and working with them to craft a plan that will help them to grow as educators.

Junior fellows: Annette Bochenek, Melissa Chomintra, Kristin Leaman

Senior fellow: Heather Howard

Teaching Leadership Award

The Teaching Leadership Award aims to foster a culture of teaching excellence and leadership by supporting instructors in designing and implementing developmental activities within their respective departments.

Recipients: Jing Lu and Zoe Mayhook

2024 Libraries Teaching Award Winners

Recipients: Annette Bochenek, Kristin Leaman

Celebration of Teaching provided a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with faculty, gain insights into their innovative teaching efforts, and honor the well-deserved award recipients. It was a memorable event highlighting the dedication and passion driving education forward.