Lee College of Engineering recognizes teaching excellence

Courtney Green and Andrew Wills are the 2018 recipients of the Lee College of Engineering Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching Awards of Excellence, respectively.

Green, a lecturer and advisor in the Engineering Technology and Construction Management Department (ETCM), joined the University in January 2015. Since then, she has taught nine different undergraduate courses to students from all five academic programs within ETCM, ranging from the freshman to the junior level.

Her teaching philosophy continues to evolve with practice and with experience.

“Each new class and each new student impacts and refines my beliefs and practices in the classroom,” said Green. “While my teaching philosophy is dynamic, it is rooted in structure and support both inside and outside of class.”

Willis, an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, has been at UNC Charlotte since August 2005.

When he began his career, Willis saw teaching as an opportunity to shape and influence the minds of students just as Marcus Tullius Cicero, considered one of ancient Rome’s greatest orators, who stated: “What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?”

“I no longer focus strictly on classical notions of pedagogy,” said Willis with regard to how his teaching philosophy has changed. “Vast amounts of information and unprecedented communication capabilities have created a world where theory and technology are advancing at rates Cicero could not have possibly anticipated. Technologies are created, superseded and destroyed in terms of months and years rather than decades.”

Read more, including student comments about Green and Willis, on the Lee College of Engineering website.