Two CUSSW Faculty Recognized for Outstanding Teaching
Dr. Michelle Ballan believes that being a lifelong mentor to her students is one of her key responsibilities as a professor. This year, her dedication was recognized with the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching.
“Receiving this award has been the defining moment of my professorial career,” says Dr. Ballan, an assistant professor at the School of Social Work who specializes in sexuality education for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
“This award formally acknowledges the needs of students with disabilities, the importance of expertise of faculty around disabilities, and the role of social work educators in cultivating professional social workers.”
Dr. Ballan, who was twice selected Professor of the Year by the CUSSW student body, notes that her mentoring relationships with her students continue even after they graduate. “It is an honor to work with my colleagues at different points in their careers, from master’s students to clinical social workers, directors of clinical programs, doctoral students, and eventually as faculty colleagues,” she says.
In 2006 she received a two-year Silberman Faculty Grant for social work educators to study effective communication strategies for parent instruction on sexuality for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.
In 2009, Dr. Ballan formed a partnership between CUSSW and the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, to provide opportunities for students to engage in community-oriented practice and research with individuals who have developmental disabilities and their families. Also last year, she created a four-week module on disabilities for the course Human Behavior and the Social Environment.
Dr. Ballan is co-chair of the Disability Studies seminar, which was founded at Columbia in 2003 to take a broad, interdisciplinary approach to the study of disability. In both her academic focus and her teaching, she demonstrates unwavering commitment to delivering services to individuals with disabilities.
“There is simply no greater reward than learning how your teaching and mentorship has contributed to the development of professionals who deliver evidence-based practice to society’s most vulnerable populations,” she says.
Along with her passion for her work, Dr. Ballan has high expectations for her students. She says, “I truly expect my mentees to assume positions of leadership and to contribute substantially to the knowledge base of the social work profession.”
It was only fitting that Dr. Julien Teitler learned of his being named the recipient of the 2010 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Faculty Mentoring Award while he was with students.
“This is an award that really is meaningful to me. Without any doubt the most gratifying part of my job is the work I do with students,” says Dr. Teitler, the doctoral program chair at the School of Social Work and an associate professor of social work and sociology.
The annual award is given by the Graduate Student Advisory Council to two faculty members, one to a member of the Arts and Sciences faculty and the other to a faculty member from a doctoral program outside of Arts and Sciences. The award recognizes extraordinary dedication to students as demonstrated in teaching, academic advising, and promotion of students’ academic and professional development.
“His students describe him as ‘supportive and rigorous,’ offering remarkable support to students by helping them launch research projects, join his research projects, exposing them to research and instructional opportunities outside of the school, and having a strong and positive influence on the direction of students’ dissertation research,” says Iva Petkova, president of the advisory council.
“‘JT,’ as Professor Teitler is known to his many devotees in the School of Social Work, invests heavily in ensuring that students write rigorous research applications and in preparing them for the job market.”
Dr. Teitler, who received the award in May at the GSAS Convocation, is currently working with students on research projects that include a study of immigrant health in the United States and a project using Google Street View to measure neighborhood characteristics.
“As Dr. Teitler’s own perspective is multidisciplinary, he brings to his mentoring a wide, enriched perspective of how our doctoral students might best strengthen and advance their individual courses of study,” says Associate Dean Allen Zweben. “Moreover, I have been consistently impressed with how much he cares about our students, their eventual careers, and their development as people and as professionals. Julien is a much beloved chair.”
Dr. Teitler says he enjoys the process of collaboration and watching how a teaching experience can come full circle. “It’s very rewarding because you can see the fruits of your involvement with these students and their successes, and their successes become ours, and it’s all very gratifying.”
This is the second time the GSAS Mentoring Award has been given to a CUSSW faculty member. Professor Irwin Garfinkel received the award in 2005.