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Ken Bain (Ph.D, University of Texas at Austin) is Vice Provost for Instruction, Director of the Research
Academy for University Learning, and Professor of History at Montclair State University. He has been the founding director
of teaching centers at Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and NYU, before coming to Montclair in 2006. He is the winner of four major
teaching awards as a professor of history and the author of What the Best College Teachers Do. His historical research
and writing has centered on the development of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. He is currently working on
his third book on the U.S. and the Middle East, The Last Journey Home: Franklin Roosevelt and the Middle East. He is also
finishing a book entitled, What the Best College Students Do. He teaches courses on U.S. political history. His book on Best
Teachers has been translated into ten languages, and it is the subject of a new documentary series broadcast in April 2008
on EBS. It has been one of the top selling books on higher education in the last twenty-five years.
Charlie Cannon one of the subjects of the Best Teachers study, associate professor of industrial design
at Rhode Island School of Design and co-founder of LOCAL Architecture Research Design, Providence, R. I. His design
studios use interdisciplinary collaboration to solve large-scale environmental and infrastructure problems. His innovative
approach to creating natural critical learning environments for his students has won wide recognition and praise. His method
for creating collaboration across disciplines has garnered international attention.
Chad Richardson (Ph.D., University of Texas) , professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Pan American,
and director of the Borderlife Research Project, was one of the subjects of the book, What the Best College Teachers Do.
A highly successful teacher and researcher for more than thirty years, he is the 2007-2008 recipient of the UT System Chancellors’
Award for Outstanding Teaching and nominee for the Minne Piper Award given annually to the outstanding college teacher in
Texas. He has been enormously successful in creating natural critical learning environments in which his students engage
in research, even in introductory courses, and produce high quality work. His goal in teaching has always been to help students
discover that they can learn, understand and even create knowledge. He and his students have published two major studies
on border life, Batos, Bollillos, Pochos and Pelados and On the Edge of the Law. He will conduct a seminar on fostering inductive
learning and engaging students in research, even when those students enter the university with less than ideal academic backgrounds.
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 To download a printer-friendly copy of the application form, click here
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Jeanette Norden (Ph.D, Vanderbilt), Professor of Neurosciences in the College of Arts and Sciences and
Professor of Cell Biology in the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University and one of the subjects of the Best Teachers
study. She was the first holder of the University Endowed Chair of Teaching Excellence (1994-1997) and also the first recipient
of the School of Medicine's Excellence in Teaching Award (2000). She is an extraordinarily gifted educator who has also
received numerous awards from students for her teaching. She has been named Best Lecturer in the Medical School, and she has
been a multiple recipient of the Medical School's Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award (1993, 1994, 1995,1996) and the
Jack Davies Award, presented in recognition of basic science professors who uphold the highest standards of teaching excellence
(1992, 1994,1997, 1999). Even early in her career, she was recognized by the students by being awarded the Shovel (1985) by
the graduating seniors as the professor who had the most positive influence on them in their 4 years of study. Most recently,
she received the Robert J. Glaser Award for Outstanding Contributions to Medical Education, a national award from the American
Association of Medical Colleges and the medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha (2000). Her course in Neurosciences to second
year students is considered a model course. She has presented invited programs throughout the United States on education reform
and acts as a consultant to many different kinds of schools. She maintained an active and NIH-funded research laboratory from
1979-1997 before taking the position of Director of Medical Education in the Department of Cell Biology at Vanderbilt. In
addition to her teaching in the medical school, she teaches a highly lauded course in the neurosciences for undergraduate
students in the College of Arts and Sciences at Vanderbilt. We will explore and analyze how she creates a natural critical
learning environment in both a large lecture class and a smaller seminar.
Ann Woodworth (M.A., Northwestern) is Associate Professor of Theatre and the Charles Deering McCormick Professor
of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University, and one of the subjects of the Best Teachers study. Her work on the stage
and in directing have won strong praise in the theater, but she has also been one of the most successful and highly acclaimed
teachers in the United States, especially recognized for her general insights into the art and craft of teaching and for her
work with other faculty members in helping them achieve impressive improvements in their ability to communicate with students.
She will conduct a master class for the institute on improving communication techniques in the classroom, in public forums,
and in conversations with students. The session sparkle with excitement, and even seem like a bit of magic as she coaxes from
participants a level of achievement that many of them have never imagined that they might be able to reach. But she has also
dissected her own approaches and she shares in those classes the secrets of her techniques. Past institute participants have
reported that the session provide them with both improvements in communication ability and important ideas about working successfully
one on one with students. The master class concept has proved to be a powerful approach. Professor Woodworth has been a Fellow
of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence since 1993.
Other Outstanding Teachers by way of Videotape
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