Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award
The Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award, named for Western’s former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, is given to a faculty member from either the College of Humanities and Social Sciences or the College of Science and Engineering, in recognition for their exemplary teaching practices.
*Please Note: Only Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, or Professors are eligible for this award. (Instructors, Lecturers, Senior Instructors are not eligible. Please check the staff directory for faculty titles.)
Selection Criteria
The following criteria and policies are intended to secure comprehensive evaluations and maintain goodwill in the process.
- No person shall receive this award more than once.
- Only the name of the award winner is announced. The names of the other candidates shall not be published at any time during or after the process.
- Tenure is not a requirement, but the candidate must be a tenure track faculty member having completed at least three full years of service at Western Washington University. Visiting faculty, non-tenure track faculty, and part-time faculty are not eligible.
- Eligible nominees will be notified by the College administering the award. Upon officially confirming their candidacy, nominees will be invited to submit their support materials to the committee by the deadline date provided.
- The award is a teaching award, not a research award; support materials submitted should speak to the candidate’s teaching abilities.
- The committee may devise additional or alternative criteria and/or processes upon announcement.
- The committee will evaluate materials secured through all processes and make its selection according to its best judgment.
- The award is intended to recognize the candidate’s excellence in teaching while at Western Washington University. Support materials should be limited to no more than the past three years)
- To secure consistency in the evaluation process, nominees will provide the following documents:
- Current vita
- Evaluations representative of all courses taught; must include student comments and numerical data, if available.
- Current copies of syllabi from all courses taught in the last three years
- A maximum of two supporting documents per course (optional)
- A maximum of six (6) reference letters (electronic format) sent directly to the Dean’s Office* with a minimum of three (3) letters, one (1) each from the following:
- Student
- Alumni
- Colleague (may consist of faculty from other institutions, if reasonably representing the candidate’s department or field)
- A summary comprising up to three (3) pages describing aspects of his/her teaching not covered by the requested material.
- In the past, the Elich Award Committee has evaluated nominees using the following criteria:
- Challenge Level
- Student Engagement
- Breadth/Versatility
- Risk/Innovation
- Impact
- Passion/Energy
- Faculty on leave in the year of nomination may choose to defer the nomination to the following academic year.
*It is the responsibility of the nominee to request the recommendation letters. The Dean’s Office will only consider letters received directly from the reference contact electronically (Word or PDF). Recommendation letters are treated as confidential; contents will not be shared with the candidate.
Award/Recognition
Award Administration
Nomination Process
2022
Jane Wong - English
Jane Wong is a poet, essayist, "restaurant baby," interdisciplinary artist, and educator. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Literature and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses at WWU. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and her M.F.A. in Poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. In addition to teaching poetry and hybrid forms, her research interests include Asian American poetry and poetics, migration and transnational studies, the digital humanities, and food writing. She is the author of Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, forthcoming in 2023), How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James Books, 2021), and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). In 2019, she debuted her solo art exhibit, “After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly," at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. She was also awarded the Womxn of Color Empowerment Award that year for her teaching and mentorship at WWU. She grew up in a Chinese American take-out restaurant and is a proud first-generation college graduate. Her teaching is dedicated to inclusive, innovative, radical, and compassionate community-based learning.
Past Awardees
1 awardee(s) for this year
2021 Awardees
Suzanne Lee - Biology
Suzanne Lee is an educator and molecular cell biologist who joined the Biology Department after receiving a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and completing postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Diego. She teaches Biology courses in cell and molecular biology at all levels - from Introductory and Upper Division lecture courses to a 300-level skill-building lab to a 400-level research course. As an educator, Suzanne aims to inspire and empower students to become lifelong learners and collaborative problem solvers, employing a diversity of student-centered active learning approaches in her classrooms. Her favorite moments in working with students are those “aha” moments when concepts suddenly click for a student and they feel that thrill of advancing their own learning. In addition, the nature and process of science is woven into all of her courses, whether through data analysis, learning more about the people behind the science, or hands-on student-driven inquiry and authentic research. Motivated by her own experiences and those of others she admires, Suzanne has worked to promote greater equity and inclusion in STEM through implementing evidence-based pedagogical and mentoring approaches and organizing workshops, seminars, and professional learning communities.