Two UF/IFAS faculty win teaching awards

November 19, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two faculty members with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences received accolades for teaching excellence at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ annual meeting Nov. 14 in Dallas.

Ricky Telg, a professor with UF’s department of agricultural education and communication, received one of two National Teaching Awards, from the USDA/NIFA National Awards Program for Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences. The award carries with it a $5,000 stipend to be used for strengthening instructional programs in the food and agricultural sciences.

Telg, a faculty member at UF since 1995, is well known for his work in distance education instructional design and as an adviser to many students in the department’s communication and leadership development program.

He advises as many as 60 undergraduates in that program each year, as well as several master’s and doctoral students. He also oversees his department’s two undergraduate minors in extension education and agricultural communication, as well as the interdisciplinary minor in leadership.

Telg founded UF’s Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow organization in 1995 and its student members have consistently been part of the ACT’s national leadership.

Among his many other awards, Telg was IFAS’ nominee for UF’s Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars in 2009 and in 2008, he received the Southern Regional Outstanding Teacher Award from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.

In addition, IFAS’ Grady Roberts received one of the two USDA/NIFA New Teacher Awards, given to faculty with no more than seven years of teaching experience in higher education. The award carries with it a $2,000 stipend.

Roberts, an associate professor with the agricultural education and communication department since 2008, is director of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ Teaching Resource Center.

The resource center serves CALS instructors and faculty through workshops, seminars and individual consultations to improve teaching skills. It also acts as a reservoir for state-of-the-art information about teaching and learning.

Roberts was a faculty member in agricultural education at Texas A&M University for four years before joining the UF faculty in 2008. His research interests include experiential learning and teaching and learning in university settings; and he is the author or co-author of 40 peer-reviewed journal articles. Roberts was recognized as a Teacher Fellow by the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture in 2009.

The APLU is an association of 218 public research universities, land-grant institutions and public university systems.