College Honors Four Faculty as Prized Teachers

Four faculty acclaimed for educational leadership in the UC Davis departments of Chemistry, English, Political Science and Sociology are recipients of the 2023 College of Letters and Science Teaching Awards. The annual awards recognize outstanding teaching of all kinds: at the undergraduate and graduate level, and inside and outside the classroom.

“Our committee faced some difficult decisions, but reviewing the nominations for these four teaching awards was a real pleasure,” said Sam Nichols, an associate professor of teaching in the Department of Music and a member of the College of Letters and Science Teaching Award Committee. “We’re deeply impressed with the dedication, creativity and care that our colleagues in the college bring to their teaching.”

Julia Chamberlain
Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of Chemistry

A committed educator passionate about improving student accessibility to chemistry, Chamberlain has taught over 6,600 general chemistry students during her time as a faculty member at the College of Letters and Science.

Colleagues who nominated Chamberlain for the award praised her use of emerging technologies in the classroom and connecting class material to real-world examples. Even when teaching large classes, she goes the extra mile, connecting with every student and investing time to ensure course materials are updated to reflect recent advances in chemistry.

“Julia’s impact on our department and on the broader community is unquestionable,” Marie Heffern, assistant professor of chemistry, wrote in nominating Chamberlain. “She has all the hallmarks of an outstanding educator.”

A member of the UC Davis faculty since 2015, Chamberlain focuses her education research on the questions, “Why is learning chemistry hard?" and “How can we make it easier?” Recently, she and her colleagues were awarded a $1 million grant from the State of California for a project to improve student success and decrease achievement gaps in chemistry through an adaptive learning platform.

Chamberlain plays a critical role in developing curricula and programs in the Department of Chemistry, including the General Chemistry Learning Assistant Program, which gives upper-level undergraduates the opportunity to provide support to lower-level undergraduates. She also acts as faculty advisor to the UC Davis Chemistry Club and developed two first-year seminars titled “Nuclear Science and Other Hot Topics” and “Strategies for Success in Online Learning.”

Brian Halpin
Continuing Lecturer of Sociology

As an expert on labor and inequality, Halpin (M.A. ’10, Ph.D. ’16, sociology) teaches a wide range of courses including introductory sociology, work and employment, sociological theory and research methods.

In each course, according to his colleagues, Halpin builds upon students’ personal experiences to help them understand the subject matter, engage in dialogue, and develop the thinking and analytical skills they need to succeed in their studies and beyond.

“As a first-generation college student, community college graduate and UC Davis Ph.D. alumnus, Dr. Halpin has demonstrated an uncommon commitment to supporting our undergraduate students, particularly those who come to our university facing numerous barriers to inclusion,” Associate Professor of Sociology Jacob Hibel wrote in nominating him for the award.

Halpin receives consistently high evaluations from students, even though they consider his courses, while inclusive and engaging, to be challenging. Many students wrote that after taking a course from Halpin, they signed up for more — with several reporting that they chose to pursue a sociology major because of his impact.

“Dr. Halpin is probably one of the best instructors I've had at Davis. I just really love how he breaks down and explains very dense readings and concepts. He makes these difficult concepts easy to understand.” — student course evaluation

Margaret Ronda
Associate Professor, Department of English 

Ronda is both a scholar of American poetry from the 19th century forward and a poet, receiving awards and widespread acclaim for her work in both areas. Ronda is the only faculty member who teaches in both the literature and creative writing areas of the English department.

“The English department prides itself on high-quality teaching, but even within a department of excellent teachers, [she] stands out as a student favorite and as an unusually engaged, hardworking instructor and mentor,” Professor of English Elizabeth Miller stated in her nominating letter.

Miller also cited Ronda’s excellence in both sides of her work: “Professor Ronda has managed to straddle the critical and creative worlds in her teaching and to maintain a distinguished publishing career in both fields.”

Ronda's most recent books are Remainders: American Poetry at Nature's End, an examination of postwar American poetry that reflects on ecological crises, and For Hunger, a poetry collection exploring motherhood, both published in 2018. Ronda, who has been at UC Davis since 2014, received the Brown Foundation Fellowship at the Dora Maar House in 2022 and the UC Davis Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Award in 2020. She holds a doctorate from UC Berkeley and a Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University.

“Professor Ronda’s love and enthusiasm for this course was beyond words. I truly felt captivated by each class and it made me admire her and her work much more. I think this was a one-of-a-kind experience.” — student course evaluation

Mark Verbitsky
Assistant Professor of Teaching, Political Science

In his seven years at UC Davis, Verbitsky has redesigned his courses on American political thought and justice systems in ways that colleagues say best help students to learn. Moreover, they say, he has worked to help others on campus — from students to faculty — teach better.

An engaging lecturer, Verbitsky takes a student-centered approach to connect student learning to current events, according to colleagues who nominated him for the prize. He structures his assignments to lead students to succeed in progressively harder work, provides detailed study guides, and created video tutorials on how to do research for papers and read academic writing.

Even before the pandemic, he was recording lectures and making them available for students to review and using Zoom to conduct in-class interviews of outside experts.

“Professor Verbitsky excels not only at going above and beyond while teaching our students, he continues to evolve as an instructor,” Professor of Political Science Amber Boydstun and Associate Professor of Political Science Shalini Satkunanandan wrote in their nomination letter.

In addition, Verbitsky oversees the political science department’s internship program as well as a Learning Assistant program he established to recruit promising undergraduates to tutor their peers.

He also has created workshops and tutorials for graduate student instructors and faculty on strategies to improve teaching, foster learning communities in remote classes, use web conference technology to bring guest speakers to in-person classes, and promote freedom of expression in the classroom.

"Seriously one of the most humble, brilliant, passionate and hilarious professors at UC Davis. He is the type of professor whose lectures you look forward to, and who wants to see students succeed.” — student course evaluation