Message

Distinguished Teaching Awards
Distinguished Teaching

 

Thank you, Regent Wheeler.

Hello everyone.

It is wonderful to see our distinguished teachers and their families, friends, colleagues and community members come together for this special occasion. 

To our visitors: welcome to the University of Minnesota.

I’m so happy you’re here to celebrate these extraordinary educators with us.

I am also glad to see:

Our Department chairs, many of whom nominated these distinguished teachers

Some of our Deans (CBS, CLA, Design, Humphrey, SPH)

Members of our Alumni Association 

Representatives from the Senate Committee on Educational Policy 

And, of course, our 21 honorees

Thank you all for being here.

And thank you for all you do to support and strengthen the University of Minnesota’s commitment to excellence in teaching.

Excellence in teaching is the foundation of our entire mission.

I learned this firsthand—decades before I became University president. 

You may not know this, but I have a long history of family members living in the Twin Cities.

I would come here so often as a med school student and a young mom, I thought of Minnesota as my second home.

In that time, I became familiar with the University.

My father-in-law, Bill Cunningham, was a faculty member here for nearly 40 years.

In one of those years, he was part of this ceremony too, honored with the Horace T. Morse [“HOR-iss T. MORS”] Award. 

Now, this day isn’t about Bill or about me, but I bring it up to let you know I understand on a personal level what this honor has meant to an award recipient and to those who love and support them. 

As President, I also understand how our distinguished teachers serve as a collective North Star.

They light the way for our students and equip them to do amazing things.

They light the way for this University too, elevating the ways in which we deliver on our mission and our priorities. 

A mission that—for 175 years now—has positively impacted Minnesota, the nation and the world. 

This impact starts with teaching and learning:

Recently, five University of Minnesota faculty members were elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2025 class of Fellows:

Erin E. Carlson (Chemistry), Michael Gale (Microbiology and Immunology), Maria Gini (Computer Science & Engineering), Daniel Harki (Pharmacy) and Carolyn Silflow (Biological Sciences).

Our faculty have created the country’s top programs for transportation science and technology (#3), communications (#4), ecology (#5) and biotech (#7).

Our Medical School is distinguished as a Tier 1 institution for Primary Care education and ranks #2 nationally for training Native American physicians. 

The Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication is ranked #6 in the world's Shanghai rankings.

The University of Minnesota is strong and getting stronger, and so are our distinguished teachers.

In a multitude of ways, they are innovating to transform the future of learning—a key element in our University-wide strategic roadmap.

  • They are expanding problem-based learning, thinking and teaching.
  • They are contributing to the online learning hub serving students on all campuses and beyond.
  • They are contributing to the vital work we’re doing with our recently launched AI Hub—on that note, I would like to offer a special congratulations to Regents Professor Vipin Kumar: earlier this year, he was named to the inaugural United Nations Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence. 


Additionally and importantly, our distinguished teachers are designing new models of learning. 

They know the way students learned best in 1996 is not the way they learn best in 2026, so they are:

  • Developing innovative courses and programs
  • Participating in cross-disciplinary teaching
  • And providing opportunities for students to engage in research and author papers.


They are meeting students where they are while modeling our mission in action.

Distinguished Educators: thank you sincerely.

We appreciate who you are, and we appreciate what you do.

I hope you are filled with pride in knowing you make a meaningful difference in this community each and every day.

As we continue to celebrate you, I’d like to invite Provost Ritter to share more about the awards you are receiving today.

Provost Ritter?