Smith School Honors Outstanding Teachers with Krowe/Legg Mason Awards

For more than 20 years, the Smith School has been honoring and rewarding outstanding faculty members, instructors and PhD students for their teaching excellence. The Krowe Teaching Award committee, comprised of faculty Smith School faculty members Galit Shmueli, Charley Olson, Mary Harms, and Jeff Kudisch, has announced the following winners and finalists for the 2006-2007 Krowe Teaching Awards and the Legg Mason Award. Nominations were received from students, alumni, deans, department chairs, directors and administrators.

Krowe Award Faculty Category (alphabetical order):

Anand Anandalingam (Decision & Information Technology) - Recognized for his tireless performance and devotion to teaching above and beyond the classroom, and commended for his ability "to take on a daunting course and turning it into a motivating learning experience." He received rave nominations from a diverse audience about his commitment to teaching excellence.

Elinda Kiss (Finance) - Recognized for the professional relationships and commitment that she has developed with her students outside the classroom, as well as excellence in the classroom. She "always reaches out to students for availability and shows a genuine appreciation for each individual student."

Joyce Russell (Management & Organization) - Recognized for her energizing, entertaining, charismatic, and highly communicable teaching style. She connects with students of all levels from MBAs to Executive MBAs. She continually strives for teaching excellence by leading teaching enhancement and curriculum committees, as well as the Smith School's highly acclaimed EMBA executive coaching program.

Erich Studer-Ellis (Decision & Information Systems) - Recognized nationally for his teaching excellence by Business Week as one of its "top 7 business professors" and for his passion "to educate and help everyone he meets." The profound impact of his teaching methods are reflected by one student who noted, "Erich not only motivated me to succeed in his class, but he has changed my entire work ethic when it comes to school work. He has motivated me in ways that my parents never could have."

The Krowe Teaching Award faculty finalists were: Shreevardhan Lele (Decision & Information Technologies) and Rachelle Sampson (Logistics Business & Public Policy)

The Legg-Mason Award recipient is Raghu Raghavan (Decision & Information Technologies), who is recognized for using cutting edge software in multiple classes to model and solve business decision problems. Raghavan "combines multiple engaging methods in tune with students' attention levels." The finalists in this category were Hugh Turner (Logistics, Business & Public Policy) and Oliver Schlake (Management & Organization).

Krowe Award PhD/Adjunct Category (alphabetical order):

Eugene Cantor- Recognized for "taking tough accounting courses and making them funny, enjoyable, memorable, and informative."

Bruce Michelson - Recognized for outstanding undergraduate teaching and consistently achieving high ratings across a wide range of accounting courses. He also deserves recognition for connecting with students and "knowing all his Shady Grove students by name."

Mike Pfarrer - Recognized for outstanding undergraduate teaching and selfless sharing and mentoring of others. He maintains a consistent track record of success in the classroom, including having recently been awarded a university-wide teaching award.

James Spina - Recognized for consistent teaching excellence at the undergraduate and graduate level, his students regard him as "knowledgeable, charismatic, enthusiastic, and adaptable," and his sections are among the first to attract a waiting list.

The finalist is this category was Xiaomeng (Alice) Zhang.

The Smith School offers congratulations to all winners!