Grants and Awards

Congrats 2024 Award Recipients!

We are happy to celebrate the student-centered work of these faculty. In Fall 2024 these faculty will be able to share their experience and advice in our Teaching in 10 Words series, along with nominations for the 2025 awards.

• Teaching Excellence Award: Scott Tiegs
• Excellence in Teaching Award: Mary Bee
• Excellence in Online Teaching Award: Marshall Kitchens
• Graduate Mentor Award: Jonathan Maisonneuve

2023 Teaching Excellence Award Winners

Taras Oleksyk, Teaching Excellence Award

Teaching was always an important part of Taras’ academic activity, and he has had college teaching experience for more than 25 years.  While a postdoc at the NIH, taught at various schools in Maryland including Johns Hopkins, Mount Saint Mary’s and Hood University.  Almost ten years of work as a professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, taught him a great deal about how to understand and engage students from underrepresented backgrounds.  Since joining Oakland University, he focused on adaptation of his Evolutionary Biology course to the local needs.  He has taught at least 9 different courses, and has been developed on-site, but during the Covid19 epidemic, some were adapted for teaching on-line only using distance-learning systems Moodle.   Finally, he mentored 14 graduate students, more than a hundred undergraduate students, many high school students, as well as foreign exchange students, and volunteered to teach immigrant kids.  In his lab, students are engaged in research, have shared authorship on papers, and received awards for their presentations.  More about Taras’ work.

Holly Greiner-Hallman, Excellence in Teaching Award

Holly Greiner-Hallman has been a Special Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences since 2010.  She earned her B.S. from Western Michigan University and is proud to have completed her M.S. here at Oakland University.  Holly teaches a broad range of courses to both STEM majors and non-majors.  From Biology I to the senior capstone experience, she employs the instructional method of scaffolding in order to create a safe environment for students to try new and challenging tasks.  Her primary scholarly interests are 1.) the identification and implementation of evidence-based tools to increase student success and 2.) helping students navigate the ‘hidden curriculum’ of the university experience.

Helena Riha, Online Teaching Excellence Award

Helena Riha received her Ph.D. in Linguistics and her M.A. in Chinese Linguistics from The Ohio State University. She received her M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Dr. Riha has been at OU since 2008 and teaches as a Special Lecturer in the Linguistics Department and the International Studies Program. She has a broad range of teaching experience, designing and teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses, in person and online. She has taught over 3,400 students in 17 different courses at OU ranging from Phonetic Theory to Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Asia, her newest General Education course. She has also written fourteen teaching tips for CETL Teaching Tips. Dr. Riha is the 2016 winner of the OU Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2023 winner of the Online Teaching Excellence Award. Contact Helena at [email protected].