Congratulations to the 2026 Teaching Award Recipients

Tuba Agartan, Ph.D., professor of health sciences, is the recipient of the 2026 Innovation in Teaching Excellence Award. This annual award honors faculty members who have implemented innovative teaching approaches that enhance student learning and success. The Center for Teaching Excellence’s Advisory Group administers the award. 

Dr. Agartan is recognized for her transformative approach to student learning, which emphasizes active engagement, ethical innovation, collaboration, and real-world problem solving. Drawing on nearly two decades of teaching experience, she critically examined the challenges students faced in the post-pandemic learning environment and redesigned her courses to foster deeper engagement, creativity, and resilience.

In her HPM 480 Senior Seminar, Dr. Agartan collaborated with colleagues to reimagine the course around the theme of health innovation. Incorporating principles of design thinking and ethical entrepreneurship, she shifted the focus from traditional presentations to the development of social-impact ventures addressing healthcare challenges. The redesigned course significantly increased student engagement and innovation, culminating in nine student teams competing in a campus-wide entrepreneurship competition, with one team earning first place.

Similarly, in the interdisciplinary ART/HPM 201: Photography and Global Health course, co-taught with Professor Eric Sung, MFA, Dr. Agartan redesigned course assignments around digital storytelling and climate-focused inquiry. Students connected course concepts to their personal experiences, communities, and environments, which produced creative and meaningful projects that demonstrated greater ownership and enthusiasm. Enhanced integration of guest speakers, gallery visits, and artist studio experiences further enriched the learning process and strengthened the connection between classroom learning and real-world issues.

One of Dr. Agartan’s nominators described her teaching as follows:
Dr. Agartan reinvigorated Senior Seminar while reinforcing the department’s mission of developing compassionate, ethical, and innovative healthcare leaders. Her course redesign reflected a long-standing commitment to student engagement, collaborative learning, and health equity by creating opportunities for students to apply classroom knowledge to real-world challenges.

Congratulations to Dr. Agartan on this award!

LeShae Henderson, Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2026 Teaching Excellence by a Visiting and Contingent Faculty Award. Dr. Henderson is a CFD Postdoctoral Fellow of Research and Teaching in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Dr. Henderson’s interests bridge the sociologies of race, indigeneity, punishment, and inequality. Her research examines how social institutions construct racial and Indigenous categories; how people navigate and experience those categories; and how those categories shape inequalities. Dr. Henderson received her Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University and her B.A. from Harvard College.

Dr. Henderson taught Introduction to Sociology and Race, Indigeneity, and Punishment. As a teacher-scholar, she aims to equip students with sociological tools that will help them become critical thinkers, consumers, and producers of knowledge in whatever fields they go on to next. Through reflective exercises, podcast assignments, and creative activities, Dr. Henderson’s courses engage students through critical curiosity, community dialogue, and hope as an active practice.

One of Dr. Henderson’s nominators described her teaching as follows:

Her ability to create an open, welcoming atmosphere where students feel comfortable sharing diverse perspectives, even on highly contested social topics of the day, shows a deep commitment to fostering rigorous intellectual engagement.

Congratulations to Dr. Henderson on this award!