Faculty Awards

Dell Med evaluation of clinical teachers by 6 or more medical students on 2 items: Created a positive environment for learning; Served as an effective role model for empathy and compassion. The clinical teachers must receive perfect (5) or near perfect (4.9) evaluations on these two items from 6 or more students during the previous academic year.

There is no application process. All clinical teachers, including residents, at Dell Medical School clerkship and elective evaluations are reviewed with the criteria and automatically receive the award if applicable.

Eligible faculty: regular and affiliate faculty

Ken Shine Excellence in Research Mentorship Award

The Ken Shine Excellence in Research Mentorship award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in mentoring trainees in the area of research, focusing on a celebration of investigation and inquiry. Trainees are asked to nominate faculty who have provided exemplary mentorship. The selection committee awards one faculty member with a primary or joint academic appointment at the Dell Medical School.

Eligible faculty: regular and affiliate faculty with primary or joint academic appointment at Dell Medical School

Closed;
Applications open in March 2026

The Dell Medical School Department of Medical Education subcommittee of faculty members issues the Teaching Health Equity award to up to three regular or affiliate faculty and residents of Dell Medical School who engage in teaching practices that promote health equity for patients or populations, explicitly address the root causes of health inequities either in the classroom or through patient care, encourages actions by students and/or residents to improve health care access, quality, patient experiences and outcomes, and promotes students' or residents' ability to speak up on topics of health equity.

Nominations can be made by self, students, residents, or faculty members. Up to three awards will be given annually.

Eligible faculty: regular and affiliate faculty

Mentorship Award

The Dell Medical School Department of Medical Education subcommittee of faculty members issue the Mentorship Award to up to three regular and affiliate faculty of Dell Medical School who have a multi-year record of engagement in formal and informal career mentoring activities. This faculty member encourages vision, goal setting and reflection by the mentee, demonstrates the needed time commitment for the mentee, serves as a role model for how to integrate personal life with professional responsibilities, and recognizes and responds to the mentee's previous successes and potential.

Nominations can be made by self, students, residents, or faculty members. Up to three awards will be given annually.

Eligible faculty: regular and affiliate faculty

Closed; Nominations open April 2026 and close mid-July 2026

This award recognizes individual faculty members for an outstanding commitment to engaged teaching, education scholarship and leadership, as well as student success. *Prior Dell Med Excellence in Teaching recipients can apply for the award under a new area of excellence.

Applications can be submitted by self or another faculty member. Candidates are evaluated by the Dell Med Academy of Distinguished Educators review committee based on an established rubric. On average, applicant pools are small but the award is not limited to a specific number of faculty.

Eligible faculty: regular and affiliate faculty

Innovation Award in Education

Susan M. Cox, MD, Academy of Distinguished Educators developed the Innovation in Education award to foster a continuing culture to address gaps and create innovative solutions at Dell Medical School. The Innovation Award highlights an initiative already implemented but with implications for a larger-scale solution to an educational challenge identified at Dell Med. Up to three awardees will be selected with $1,000 funding available for each recipient. Recipients are required to present their findings at the Innovations Conference the following year.

The award requires an application from the lead innovator. Selection is based on the quality of the application in four areas: identifying the problem addressed, describing the strategy for implementing the innovation, defining measurable outcomes, and explaining how funding will sustain or expand the project.

Eligible faculty: regular and affiliate faculty

Closed;
Nominations to open in March 2028

The President’s Associates Graduate Teaching Excellence Award recognizes excellence in graduate student teaching. These recipients are UT Austin’s educational innovators whose commitment and performance not only teach, but inspire graduate student learners. These awards are made possible by contributions from friends of the university who are committed to the quality of our educational programs – a group of people known as the President’s Associates.

Eligible faculty: Any faculty and postdoctoral fellows engaged in graduate student teaching are eligible.

Closed;
Nominations to open in March 2028

The Academy of Distinguished Teachers is emblematic of the university’s commitment to excellence in teaching. The purposes of the Academy are to honor and reward excellence in teaching, provide leadership in improving the quality and depth of the undergraduate experience, foster research on effective college teaching and learning, and advise the institution on teaching policies and practices. Current & former members of the academy>

Eligible faculty: All full-time faculty

Eligible faculty: Tenured/tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty.

Nomination Portal

Closed, submissions expected to open in March 2026

Program

Sponsoring Office

Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars
One-year program; 16 faculty members are selected for 1:1 mentoring and skill-building workshops to assist mentees expanding their scholarly portfolio and its societal impact. This program augments traditional, within-department faculty mentoring at UT by facilitating mentor-mentee pairing across departments, or colleges. 

Eligible faculty: Any tenured or tenure-track faculty member- best suited to faculty who are late-stage Assistant Professors, or already tenured Associate or Full Professors.

EVPP/OVPR

Aspiring Leaders Academy
One year program; 15 mid-career tenured faculty who are interested in pursuing academic leadership. The purpose of the academy is to proactively develop academic leaders through a twice-monthly, structured curriculum as well as a hands-on shadowing experience with an existing leader.

Eligible faculty: Professional-track faculty, tenured associate and tenured full professors.

EVPP

Research Leaders Academy
One-year program offered every other year; 15 principal investigators (tenured or professional track faculty, or research scientists) who aspire to lead, or who are already leading, large-scale research initiatives. Faculty fellows will engage in eight, three-hour interactive workshops and individual mentorship.

Eligible faculty: Tenured, tenure-track, professional track faculty, or research scientists.

EVPP/OVPR

Applications to open in April 2027

Provost's Distinguished Leadership Service Academy (DLSA)
5-year program; an organization of distinguished tenured and senior non-tenure track faculty members who strive to foster and promote leadership training for UT faculty colleagues that focuses on service and mentoring-related topics. 

Eligible faculty: Tenured faculty with three academic years of full-time employment at UT in a rank higher than the tenure-track assistant professor rank. Also open to professional-track faculty who have worked at UT for at least three years in a rank higher than the lowest professional-track rank.

EVPP

Professional Track Peer Networking Circles
Annual program; allows faculty of all ranks to connect and share experiences with peers from across the University. Each “circle” promotes discussion of best practices centered on a particular theme facilitated by a professional track faculty colleague.

Eligible faculty: Professional-track faculty.

EVPP

Applications currently closed.

R01 Writing Groups Program
One-year program; targeted to early-career and new-to-NIH PIs. This program centers 4-6 person writing groups, matched according to shared research interests and availability. Writing Groups meet regularly throughout the academic year to make progress on their R01 applications.

Eligible faculty: Principal Investigators working on an NIH R01 application.

OVPR

Faculty Writing Communities
This Fall Semester program will consist of six communities, each with 10 faculty, that will meet for two hours each week in a dedicated space throughout Fall 2024. Faculty will be grouped into communities based on time availability. 

Eligible faculty: Tenured and tenure-track faculty. Professional-track faculty of any rank and benefits eligible in the academic year of engagement.

EVPP

Applications currently closed.

Associate Professor Experimental (APX)
One-year program; newly promoted, tenured, associate professors are invited to take part in a design thinking and flash funding faculty retreat that gives newly tenured associate professors dedicated funds and focused time to envision new research directions with colleagues in diverse academic disciplines.

Eligible faculty: Invitation only. OVPR’s office invites newly promoted associate professors with tenure (recently promoted from assistant to associate professor with tenure) each spring.

OVPR/EVPP

Provost’s Teaching Fellows
One-year program; includes faculty of all ranks from across campus. Faculty participants strive to improve teaching and learning at UT Austin through individual initiatives in their own classroom, department, and college as well as collective engagement across the cohort to promote educational excellence and teaching. 

Eligible faculty: open to faculty of all ranks.

Center for Teaching & Learning

Application dates not yet announced.