Augusta University announces 2025-26 Teaching Excellence Award winners

The Center for Instructional Innovation and the Teaching Excellence Awards Review Committee have announced the winners of this year’s Augusta University Teaching Excellence Awards:

• AU Individual Teaching Excellence Award – Catherine Jauregui, PhD
• AU Online Teaching Excellence Award – ChongWoo Park, PhD
• AU Program Teaching Excellence Award – Medical Illustration
• AU Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award – Deborah Richardson, PhD

The Augusta University Teaching Excellence Awards are designed to recognize the excellence of AU educators and educational programs and to select nominees for the University System of Georgia Regents’ Teaching Excellence Awards. Winners of the Augusta University awards will move forward as the university’s nominees for the Regents’ awards.

“This year’s Teaching Excellence Award winners embody the very best of our educational mission,” said Jeff Mastromonico, chair of the Augusta University Teaching Excellence Awards Committee. “Their dedication to inspiring students, innovating in the classroom and fostering a culture of curiosity and growth exemplifies the highest standards of teaching. Each of them has made a lasting impact not only on their students, but also on our broader academic community, and we are honored to recognize their extraordinary contributions.”

AU Individual Teaching Excellence Award – Catherine Jauregui, PhD

Jauregui, an assistant professor in the Dental College of Georgia’s Department of Oral Biology and Diagnostic Sciences and an associate faculty member in The Graduate School, has been with the university since 2016, teaching graduate students at the master’s, PhD and resident levels.

Not only are Jauregui’s faculty and administration impressed by her captivating and engaging classroom, but so are her students. Students admire Jauregui’s empathetic and compassionate character, which was most evident last year during Hurricane Helene. During the aftermath of the storm, while facing challenges of her own, Jauregui prioritized her students’ well-being, focusing on how the class could support each other in the time of crisis.

“Dr. Jauregui has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to advancing the quality of teaching and learning, particularly in developing and implementing critical thinking strategies, including the ‘Empowering Critical Thinkers’ program, which involves Percipio-based modules,” said Nancy Young, DMD, dean of the Dental College of Georgia. “Beyond applying these innovative teaching strategies in her own classroom, she has supported colleagues in adopting these critical thinking tools and assessments, helping to raise the standard of instruction across the college.”

This award celebrates excellent instruction by a full-time faculty or staff member and recognizes that individual’s strong commitment to teaching and student success. The winner should be an individual who:

• Is strongly committed to teaching and learning, which might be demonstrated through activities designed to advance the quality and practice of teaching and learning, develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills and/or develop global and multicultural understanding
• Uses effective teaching strategies to enhance student learning, including innovative uses of technology, active learning, learning communities, student portfolios, assessment and more
• Has a strong commitment to fostering the academic success of students through interaction with students outside of the classroom (e.g. advising, mentoring and recruiting)

AU Online Teaching Excellence Award – Chong Woo Park, PhD

Park, a professor of Management Information Systems in the James M. Hull College of Business, has been with AU since 2016 and has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses online since 2022.

When asked about his online teaching practices, Park said communication, technology-enhanced delivery and transparency in learning and teaching are what have shown great success in his virtual classroom.

“What truly distinguishes Dr. Park is his thoughtful integration of cutting-edge technologies with evidence-based instructional strategies. He has proactively adopted cloud-based platforms such as Google Locker Studio, Google Sites and Microsoft Teams to ensure students have equitable access to real-world tools that enhance collaboration, critical thinking and applied learning,” said Mark Thompson, PhD, dean of the Hull College of Business. “His strategic use of generative AI, data visualization tools and multimedia content not only enriches the online learning experience but also equips students with practical, industry-relevant skills.”

This award honors a full-time member of the teaching faculty and teaching academic staff at Augusta University who demonstrates a strong commitment to teaching and student success and has taught a minimum of 12 credit hours of fully online instruction across the last three consecutive semesters. The winner should be an individual who:

• Is strongly committed to quality online teaching and learning, as evidenced by teaching and scholarly activities designed to advance the quality of online teaching and learning
• Uses effective and innovative online teaching practices that result in student engagement, student satisfaction and effectiveness in achieving desired learning outcomes
• Demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to fostering the academic success of online students through the development of rapport with individual learners in and beyond the virtual classroom

AU Program Teaching Excellence Award – Medical Illustration

Founded in 1948, the Medical Illustration Graduate Program in the College of Allied Health Sciences has consistently demonstrated a commitment to instructional excellence and student achievement. For the last five years, the medical illustration program has boasted a 100% graduation rate and near-perfect job placement within 12 months of graduation.

“I have seen firsthand the incredible value that the medical illustration program brings to Augusta University, and the continued support it provides to its current students, alumni and faculty,” said Noah Smith, a spring 2025 alum of the program. “The medical illustration program is dedicated to providing excellent education, building connections and community and fostering student growth and success.”

The College of Allied Health Sciences administration praised the medical illustration faculty for the positive and engaging environment created in the classroom and beyond.

“The Medical Illustration Graduate Program represents the best of Augusta University,” said Lester Pretlow, PhD, dean of the College of Allied Health Sciences. “It is a model of how high-quality teaching, responsive curriculum design and engaged scholarship can transform graduate education.”

The award honors a program, department or academic unit at Augusta University that demonstrates a strong commitment to teaching and student success via:

• Individual and collective faculty efforts to improve teaching and student learning
• Methods of assessment of student learning and achievement that go beyond student evaluations, and the use of assessment results to inform teaching practices, curriculum development and revision
• Active support to enable faculty to use innovative and effective forms of pedagogy and technology, such as critical thinking, collaborative learning, cooperative learning, problem-based learning and learning communities
• Strong links between good teaching and various rewards, e.g. compensation, promotion, tenure, grants, leaves, travel, and departmental or program-based awards;
• Department/unit policies that encourage collaborative faculty efforts, including team teaching, teaching discussion groups, common assessments, interdisciplinary courses, learning communities and mentoring
• An ongoing and data-driven process for reviewing and reshaping curricula so that achieving academic excellence and serving the needs of all students remain top priorities
• Exemplary programs for advising, mentoring, recruiting, and retaining students; co-curricular work with students and out-of-class learning
• Success of the department’s or program’s students, evidenced by graduation, job placement and acceptance in graduate school
• Clear articulation of how quality is defined, promoted and assessed by the department or program

AU Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award – Deborah Richardson, PhD

Richardson holds joint faculty appointments in the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She has been with Augusta University since 2001 and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social psychology and human diversity.

Scholarship of teaching and learning has been a passion of Richardson’s for several decades, and she has published and presented on topics such as faculty mindset and motivation, educational development, research education and techniques to improve student learning. Richardson supports scholarship of teaching and learning through mentorship, encouraging scholarly teaching and promoting scholarship of teaching and learning as a pathway for research that contributes to student success and faculty development.

“I believe Dr. Richardson’s scholarship of teaching and learning work is so immediately and obviously valuable to us as teachers because she answers those questions we most need answered about teaching with the insight and carefully crafted research that comes from more than 40 years of engagement with the scholarship of teaching and learning,” said Rhonda Armstrong, PhD, professor of English in Pamplin College. “Her experience and expertise in developing productive research questions and her extensive knowledge of the existing scholarship have led to a scholarship of teaching and learning research agenda that has influenced teaching and learning at AU and beyond.”

This award honors faculty members whose scholarship focuses on the art and science of teaching. These nominees have:

• Engaged in the systematic examination of issues about student learning and instructional conditions which promote learning, building on previous scholarship
• Documented the use of strategies for investigating and evaluating the impact of teaching practice on student learning, anchored in the research literature
• Engaged in scholarship that is public, peer-reviewed and critiqued
• Produced scholarly work which contributes new questions and knowledge about teaching and learning
• Developed a well-articulated teaching philosophy that drives research questions
• Documented the dissemination of their scholarship results

Members of the Teaching Excellence Awards Review Committee include:

• Jeff Mastromonico (Chair)
• Tiana Curry-McCoy, PhD
• Daniel Kaminstein, MD
• Candis Bond, PhD
• Joseph Newton, PhD
• Jeane Silva, PhD, EdD
• Susan Murray, PhD

For questions about the AU Teaching Excellence Awards, email Aisling Reigle.