The Dean of the College of Letters & Science honors outstanding instructional academic staff for their excellence in teaching and mentoring undergraduate students. To recognize these contributions, the College offers individual L&S Academic Staff Teaching Excellence Awards and L&S Academic Staff Collaborative Teaching Excellence Awards.
We congratulate the 2025 award recipients!
Individual Award Recipients
Saylín Álvarez Oquendo
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
The key aspects of Saylín Álvarez’ pedagogy include developing multidisciplinary projects in the courses she teaches at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, fostering student agency, and connecting the humanities and the community in a way that advocates for inclusiveness, diversity, and cultural awareness. A centerpiece of her career as an educator is the Video Interview Series Voces, where she addressed topics of representation in Spanish language classes by providing a platform to students from the Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+ and non-binary communities at UW-Madison, who express their views on the content of language courses as it pertains to their diverse identities and experiences. Another milestone in Saylín Álvarez’ career is the Bilingual Children’s Books Digital Library she created with UW students, who wrote short stories for children in Spanish and English as part of a writing class activity that Álvarez implemented in several Spanish language courses. Saylín Álvarez also works extensively with cartoneras, small independent publishers originated in Latin America that produce low-cost, handcrafted books using salvaged cardboard.
According to Department Chair Fernando Tejedo, who nominated Saylín Álvarez, “student evaluations routinely praise her inclusive teaching methodologies in the courses she offers; colleagues with whom she works closely emphasize her generosity in sharing activities and teaching ideas; faculty who supervise her work underscore her leadership and inspiring contribution to the Spanish Language Program.”
Amy Gangl
Department of Political Science
Amy Gangl is the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Political Science. She engages in department programming including producing the 1050 Bascom podcast, managing the alumni mentor program, facilitating a research program that pairs undergraduate majors with doctoral researchers, and serves as the faculty director of the Political Science Student Association and Bridge Madison. Additionally, she enjoys teaching several courses in the department including The Political Psychology of Polarization, American Politics and Government, Senior Thesis Seminar, and the Political Internships course. Her collaborative partnership with UniverCity Alliance provides an opportunity to work with students working on policy projects in local communities. She also works with the UW-Madison Study Abroad Program, facilitating a Global Gateway program in Washington, DC.
Department Chair Nadav Shelef describes Amy as “an unbelievable mentor and a terrific teacher” and as a “constant force pushing the department, college, and university to live up to its commitment to foster a sense of belonging for all students.”
David Johnson
Department of Economics
David W. Johnson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds degrees in economics from Princeton, The London School of Economics, and Harvard. He previously held faculty positions in the economics departments of Duke University, Stanford University, Wellesley College, and Harvard University. He also holds a secondary school mathematics certification and has taught middle and high school mathematics in Los Angeles, CA and Brooklyn, NY. He has received wide recognition for his animated teaching style as he strives to make his courses interesting, important, and relevant. He has taught eight different undergraduate courses here, has chaired the Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI), and has been President of the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in Wisconsin. He also serves as an environmental economics consultant with the Conservation Strategy Fund, a MacArthur award-winning non-profit organization that promotes economic tools and market-based approaches to addressing the impacts of global climate change.
Johnson’s nomination material spoke extensively to his ability to deeply engage a wide variety of students. Department Chair Christopher Taber wrote that “perhaps David’s strongest skill is in engaging students who were not originally interested in economics … they spend the rest of their lives being able to think about economics.”
Scott Mellor
Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic+
Dr. Scott A. Mellor has worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in his current capacity since August 1999. He teachers a variety of classes, including Nordic Mythology, Nordic Storyteller, Horror as Expressions of National Angst, and History of Scandinavia to 1815. Dr. Mellor has taught the cornerstone course of the First-year Interest Group (FIG), the World of the Sagas, since 2008, in which he uses current TV shows and movies, as well as games and gaming to explore images of the medieval Nordic countries in pop culture while also reading the medieval Icelandic Sagas. He has worked with the International Learning Community as the director of the Norden Language Community since 2007 and has been a faculty fellow of the Bradley Learning Community for first-year students since 2008. This past year he restarted a summer study abroad to Stockholm and the Baltic for in-coming first-years through the Summer Launch Program. Dr. Mellor was appointed Teaching Professor in 2023. He is the current president of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS) and the past president of the Association of Swedish Teachers and Researchers of America (ASTRA).
Department Chair Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor wrote that Mellor has “developed a host of unique and popular courses, engaged in a wide array of high-impact practices and programs, and sought to continually update and expand his work in response to student demand and changing student needs.” She further describes him as an “indefatigable, energetic, dedicated, and innovative educator.”
Kate Phelps
Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
Dr. Kate Phelps is teaching faculty in the Gender and Women's Studies department. She received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts-Boston in 2019. She teaches body politics, feminist theory, fat studies, food politics, global health, and survey courses. Phelps' central research interests include body politics, girlhood studies, digital sociology, macro approaches to health and wellness, feminist theory, and feminist pedagogies. Her first book, Digital Girlhoods (2025), is now available from Temple University Press. Dr. Phelps also frequently gives talks and facilitates events on histories of anti-fatness, weight stigma, the wellness industry, and size-inclusive healthcare.
Department Chair Judy Houck wrote that Kate “connects deeply with her students, teaches them well, and encourages them to take themselves seriously as thinkers and scholars,” and “she meets the students’ need for compelling content with an enthusiastic and empathetic instructor.”
Alexander Shashko
Department of African American Studies
Alexander Shashko is a lecturer in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A Wisconsin native, he grew up in Shorewood, a Milwaukee suburb. Shashko went to college at UW, where he majored in History and Political Science and earned his certificate in Integrated Liberal Studies. He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan. For two decades, Shashko has taught African American history at UW, focusing on the history of African American music and its role in the broader history of the country, as well as the history of African American social movements. He also writes and speaks publicly about popular music and is a voter for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Department Chair Christy Clark-Pujara wrote that “the impact of his teaching practice can be measured by the hundreds of students who enroll in his music history courses every semester, the numerous student-nominated honors he has been awarded, and his dedication to the Wisconsin Idea of bringing his scholarship beyond the classroom and into the greater Wisconsin community.”
Collaborative Award Recipients
The 2025 Collaborative Teaching Excellence Award recipients are Dr. Emily Hall and Dr. Abby Letak, the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) teaching team from the Department of English. Together, they have had significant impacts on campus through collaborations with the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring and the Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence program. They run a comprehensive training for new teaching assistants teaching Communications-B courses. They teach writing-intensive courses and mentor undergraduate Writing Fellows.
Department of English Associate Chair Joshua Calhoun described this team’s “innovative approaches, commitment to inclusive teaching practices, and significant impact on both students and faculty.” He wrote in their nomination letter that they have “significantly enhanced the culture of writing at UW-Madison. They have made a lasting difference in the lives of students and faculty alike.”
Emily Hall
Emily Hall, Distinguished Teaching Faculty in the English department, has taught writing and mentored writing teachers at UW-Madison for over 25 years. She is director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program and directs the undergraduate Writing Fellows program. She has led numerous workshops for faculty and teaching assistants on designing writing assignments, responding to student writing, and teaching writing in an age of AI. She also teaches English 403, the tutor education seminar for Writing Fellows, and English 200, an honors senior thesis writing workshop.
Abby Letak
Abby Letak is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the English department and the Associate Director of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC). She earned her PhD in Sociology from UW-Madison in 2023. She is passionate about recognizing and exploring the roles that mental health and wellbeing play in teaching, writing, and the teaching of writing. Abby has most recently taught a graduate seminar in partnership with The Delta Program called "Using Writing to Teach in Any Discipline" and an undergraduate upper-level elective course called "Rhetoric of Wellness & Self-Care."