Cheryl Regehr Early Career Teaching Award

2025-26 Award Recipients

Award Description

The Cheryl Regehr Early Career Teaching Award (ECTA) recognizes faculty members who are effective teachers and demonstrate an exceptional commitment to student learning, pedagogical engagement, and teaching innovation. Up to six awards of $3,000 each will be offered annually.

Eligibility

Faculty members who have typically completed three years of teaching at the University of Toronto in their current continuing-stream appointment are eligible to be nominated for the Cheryl Regehr Early Career Teaching Award. This includes tenure-stream Assistant Professors, teaching-stream Assistant Professors, and full-time clinical faculty within the first six years of their continuing-status appointment.

Selection Committee

The Cheryl Regehr Early Career Teaching Award winners are determined by a process of nomination and selection by a committee. The Selection Committee will comprise tenure- and teaching-stream faculty members from different ranks and will include:

  • Vice-President & Provost (or Designate) — Chair
  • Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (one representative)
  • Four Faculty representatives, two of which shall be members of the Teaching Academy

Criteria

The Selection Committee will assess nominations based on four core criteria:

  • Teaching Excellence (required)
  • Educational Innovation
  • Pedagogical Contributions Outside the Classroom
  • Pedagogical Development & Scholarship

Nominations must demonstrate Teaching Excellence and provide clear evidence of impact in at least one of the remaining three criteria. For each criterion, examples of relevant evidence and contributions are provided in the linked document to illustrate what may be included; these examples are intended as guidance and are not exhaustive.

Nomination Structure

An effective nomination package will tell a unified story about the nominee’s teaching practices and philosophy, using evidence from multiple data sources that address the outlined criterion.

Note: work from previous academic appointments may provide useful context and help inform the committee’s overall impression of the nominee; however, the nomination should focus primarily on the candidate’s teaching practices in their current role.

Nominations are solicited from members of the University community. A complete nomination package will include the following and should be submitted with the ECTA coversheet and checklist and a table of contents:

  1. ECTA Coversheet and Checklist (download here; not included in page count)


  2. Table of Contents (not included in page count)


  3. Letter of nomination (3-4 pages) written by a University of Toronto faculty member detailing the nominee’s specific contributions. The letter should address at least two of the four ECTA criterion identified as applicable to the nominee’s teaching practice. One of the selected criteria must be Teaching Excellence. The four criteria are: Teaching Excellence, Educational Innovation, Pedagogical Contributions Outside the Classroom, and Pedagogical Development & Scholarship. The letter should be organized using clear subheadings aligned with each applicable criterion (e.g., Pedagogical Contributions Outside the Classroom) and provide specific, evidence-based examples.


  4. Summary of the nominee’s teaching-related achievements (12-16 pages) that address the selected criteria detailed above, which must include:
    • A summary demonstrating how the nominee addresses at least two of the four ECTA criterion they have identified as applicable to their teaching practice, including evidence of the impact of their contributions. Examples of evidence of impact are highlighted in the linked document; these examples are intended as guidance and are not exhaustive.
    • Teaching philosophy statement
    • Course Evaluation Data. Please use the template to share course evaluation data, which can be downloaded here.
    • Other information that supports the nomination. For example:
      • Courses taught, and courses and curriculum development
      • Summary of how equity, diversity, inclusion and access inform the nominee’s teaching practises


  5. Letters of Support: strong letters of support are specific and authentic, and clearly demonstrate the nominee’s effectiveness as a teacher, colleague, mentor and/or collaborator. Consider selecting letter writers who can speak to different aspects of the nominee’s teaching to reflect the full breadth of their accomplishments.
    • 2 letters of support from colleagues (1-2 pages each)
      • One letter should be from a Principal, Dean, Vice-Dean, Associate Dean, Chair, or Academic Director. Note that if your letter of nomination is already from one of the former, this requirement is satisfied.
    • 2 letters of support from current or former students (1-2 pages each).


  6. CV (not included in page count) – reference material

Nominations should be submitted in one PDF by email to the Office of the Vice-President & Provost. Please submit the documentation in the order outlined above and with the ECTA coversheet and checklist and a table of contents.

  • Self-nominations are not accepted.
  • It is the responsibility of the nominator to ensure that the nomination package is complete. Incomplete packages will not be considered by the Selection Committee.
  • Re-submissions: Nominations may be resubmitted once. Each resubmissions must be accompanied by a new nomination letter.

Nominations are due on February 2, 2027.

Contact

Office of the Vice-Provost, Teaching & Learning.
awards.provost@utoronto.ca

Past Recipients

2024

Lauren McLeod Cramer, Assistant Professor, Cinema Studies Institute, Faculty of Arts & Science
John De Backere, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts & Science
Naomi Levy-Strumpf, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Human Biology Program, Faculty of Arts & Science
Aditi Mehta, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Urban Studies and Department of Geography & Planning, Faculty of Arts & Science
Shelby Riskin, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Arts & Science
Lisa Zhang, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Mathematical & Computational Science, University of Toronto Mississauga

2023

Spyridon Kotsovilis, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto Mississauga
Alison Olechowski, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering and Practice, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Jasty Singh, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Immunology, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
Roberta K. Timothy, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
S. Trimble, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Women and Gender Studies Institute, Faculty of Arts & Science

2022

Alexandra Bolintineanu, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Centre for Medieval Studies and Woodsworth College, Faculty of Arts & Science
Elham Marzi, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education & Practice, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
George Ibrahim, Associate Professor, Full-Time Clinical Appointment, Department of Surgery, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
Sanghyun (Kris) Kim, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough
Uahikea Maile, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts & Science

2021

Keith Adamson, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Factor-Inwentash School of Social Work
Funké Aladejebi, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Arts & Science
Obidimma Ezezika, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Health & Society, University of Toronto Scarborough
Sherry Fukuzawa, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Angela Mashford-Pringle, Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

2020

Danielle Bentley, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Division of Anatomy, Department of Surgery, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
Daniel Gregory, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science
Jacqueline Smith, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Arts & Science
Olivier St-Cyr, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Faculty of Information

2019

Jill Carter, Assistant Professor, Tenure Stream, Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, New College, Faculty of Arts and Science
Andrea Charise, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society and Graduate Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Science
Rachel La Touche, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Science
Suzanne Wood, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science

2018

Anne McGuire, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Equity Studies, New College
Daniel Zingaro, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga
Matthew Sergi, Assistant Professor, Tenure Stream, Department of English
Toula Kourgiantakis, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

2017

Jayne Baker, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Sohee Kang, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough
Jamie Kellar, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
David Liu, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Arts & Science

2016

Sanja Hinic-Frlog, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Dawn Kilkenny, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering
David Roberts, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Innis College Urban Studies Program, Faculty of Arts & Science
Ashley Stirling, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

2015

Christian Caron, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts & Science
Alen Hadzovic, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough
Anthony Niblett, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law

2014

Aarthi Ashok, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough
Fiona Rawle, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Michael Reid, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Faculty of Arts & Science
Kyle Smith, Assistant Professor, Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga