Architecture professor Nilou Vakil among five educators recognized as Kemper Fellows

LAWRENCE — Excellence in teaching is central to the University of Kansas’ mission and integral to the KU experience.

With this in mind, KU this week is celebrating five outstanding faculty as winners of the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.

The five honorees:

• Jenny Archibald, assistant teaching professor, biology.
• Alison Gabriele, professor, linguistics.
• Tim Jackson, professor, chemistry.
• Allison Kirkpatrick, associate professor, physics & astronomy.
• Nilou Vakil, associate professor, architecture.

Each of the five winners received a surprise visit from either Chancellor Douglas A. Girod or Provost Barbara A. Bichelmeyer last spring, either while teaching a class or during a departmental meeting. The unannounced pop-in visits enabled the educators to be celebrated in front of their students and colleagues.

“Educating students is core to KU’s mission,” Girod said. “This year’s honorees each demonstrate unmatched commitment to teaching students and providing them the best possible opportunity to learn and, as such, are deserving of Kemper Fellowships.”

The annual Kemper Fellowships — which were reinstated last year after a multiyear hiatus — recognize five outstanding KU faculty whose innovative approaches to teaching help students gain crucial skills, embrace academic and professional challenges, develop learning strategies and improve long-term student success. Each of the five awardees receives $7,500. The William T. Kemper Foundation (Commerce Bank, trustee) funds these awards at KU to recognize the importance of teaching excellence, innovation and student-centeredness to the success of the university.

The five Kemper Fellows will be honored alongside the winners of KU’s other annual teaching awards at the annual University Teaching Awards event in September. The exact date and location will be announced soon.

Jenny Archibald

As an assistant teaching professor in the Undergraduate Biology Program, Archibald has consistently demonstrated her commitment to the scholarship of teaching and learning. In the classroom, she has been heralded for her excellence as an instructor in the high-enrollment Principles of Organismal Biology course (BIOL 152) that is required of all biology majors — a course she has helped transform in recent years through thoughtful, data-based pedagogical enhancements. Outside the classroom, she has integrated multiple opportunities for students to participate in community-based learning at Baker Wetlands, has partnered with the Spencer Museum of Art to introduce students to the “Art of Biology” and has spearheaded the Botany Club at KU. Furthermore, Archibald is a pedagogical leader in the Undergraduate Biology Program. She has led or co-led a series of workshops on teaching, including for the biology departments, KU’s Center for Teaching Excellence and the broader community at national and international venues that focus on improving learning for all students.

Alison Gabriele

In her 18 years at KU, Gabriele has been heralded for her excellence as a teacher in a range of courses at all levels — including a large undergraduate course, a first-year seminar, a two-course sequence and graduate seminars. As described by her peers, she excels at creating courses that are both intellectually sophisticated and engaging and that help students develop both theoretical and empirical skills. Gabriele takes great pride in creating a positive learning environment, as evidenced by more than 90% of student survey respondents rating her as having the highest level of engagement. Beyond the classroom, she has chaired or is currently chairing 15 doctoral dissertations and 22 master's theses, served on 19 additional doctoral committees and 13 additional master's committees, and supervised six honors students and one McNair Scholar. While those numbers alone are substantial, when combined with the awards, publications and conference presentations emerging from her students’ work, they reflect Gabriele’s dedication and commitment to her students. A number of her former students have gone on to become successful and productive academic scholars and industry leaders.

Tim Jackson

Jackson stands among the most highly regarded teachers at KU. In addition to this year’s Kemper Fellowship, he had already been named the winner of three student-nominated KU teaching awards: the 2012 Chancellor’s Silver Anniversary Teaching Award, the 2013 Outstanding Honors Freshman Seminar Instructor Award and the 2014 Outstanding Educator Award. The consistent theme in all of these accolades is that he genuinely cares about student achievement and success, he has a tremendous enthusiasm for the subject of chemistry, he has a remarkable facility to explain complex chemical concepts in engaging and understanding ways, and he is able to lift the students to meet his high standards. Beyond his excellence in the classroom, he has repeatedly taken on additional roles to further student education, both as a Faculty Fellow in the University Honors Program and as director/PI of the NIH Training Grant Graduate Training in the Biology-Chemistry Interface. Furthermore, 13 of his graduate students have received doctorates, and nine of these students defended their doctoral dissertations with honors, including two who won the Higuchi Doctoral Progress Award given to the top chemistry doctoral graduate at KU. Jackson has also mentored more than 20 undergraduate researchers, many of whom co-wrote peer-reviewed publications with him and/or matriculated at strong graduate or medical schools upon earning their undergraduate degree.

Allison Kirkpatrick

Kirkpatrick has taught a range of courses in the Department of Physics & Astronomy – spanning introductory courses for non-majors to graduate-level courses – and consistently demonstrated a commitment to student success and innovation in course construction. As described by her peer nominators, she is an inspiration for the time she consistently devotes inside and outside the classroom to ensuring that students are attaining a deep and fulfilling understanding of the course material. Her teaching materials are carefully planned, comprehensive and meticulously organized. The student evaluations for her courses have been consistently excellent, and her courses are routinely rated significantly higher than comparable courses in her department in every category.  Outside the confines of her courses, she has written and obtained a Research Intensive Course Grant from KU Center for Undergraduate Research to implement a new project in her course, where students are trained in both computational analysis and scientific writing. Such work promotes the educational mission of the university as it prepares students for their future careers, regardless of discipline or field.

Nilou Vakil

Vakil brings decades of national and international practice experience in her comprehensive studio teaching. She teaches fourth-year studios, which carry a lot of the weight of her unit’s professional program national accreditation. As described by her colleagues, she is able to convey highly specialized knowledge to students in a very effective way. Leveraging her industry connections, she brings industry experts from related disciplines such as structural engineers, mechanical engineers and construction experts into her studio courses, enabling students to develop a thorough understanding of building structures and systems and how they impact their design. More importantly, the interdisciplinary approach helps students build soft skills such as teamwork and professional communication. All these contribute to a positive studio culture in her studios. In addition to the studios, Vakil also teaches a large support course focused on professional ethics and leadership, which enrolls more than 100 students, and she has been named by Design Intelligence as one of the top 25 most admired architecture professors. In her classroom, she encourages students to have debates and live discussions around topics that are relevant to today’s architecture practice to deepen their understanding and learning. Vakil also serves as the fourth-year coordinator as part of the curriculum management committee. She provides important guidance to other instructors to ensure National Architectural Accrediting Board criteria are properly delivered in fourth-year studios. Vakil has been a faculty fellow with the KU Honors Program since 2020.