Recipients of the 2026 Gitner Family Award and the University Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award

From Dr. Gloria Waters, University Provost & Chief Academic Officer

Each spring, we have the pleasure of announcing the recipients of two of our most prestigious University-wide teaching awards: the Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology and the Boston University Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award.

These awards give us a chance to recognize some of the most innovative and creative members of our academic community and the outstanding work they are doing to advance the practice of teaching and explore new frontiers in the creation and transmission of knowledge.

2026 Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology

Supported through the generosity of BU alumnus Gerald Gitner (CAS ’66), his wife Deanne, and their family, the Gitner Award recognizes the faculty member or team that best exemplifies innovation in teaching by use, development, or adaptation of technology. The award celebrates innovation that results in positive learning outcomes for undergraduate students and that is recognized or adopted by faculty colleagues within or outside Boston University. The recipient of this year’s Gitner Family Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology is Dr. Thomas J. McKenna, clinical assistant professor of science education and program director for AI & Education in the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development.

Dr. McKenna has been cited for his ability to build cohesive ecosystems of technology-enhanced learning environments that strengthen disciplinary reasoning, support equitable participation, and prepare pre-service teachers for intellectually ambitious science instruction. A firm believer in the power of technology to expand access to information, invite collaboration, and support the refinement of ideas, Dr. McKenna’s thoughtful technology insights and integration have helped to enhance the student experience across BU.

In his own teaching, Dr. McKenna encourages the use of virtual notebooks that act as living digital portfolios, enabling students to analyze classroom video, build models, document observations, and reflect through written, visual, and recorded entries. He also creates custom course websites that serve as active learning environments for students to explore the full breadth of the course, and has developed several AI tools to support learners as they prepare their own curricula.

Outside the classroom, Dr. McKenna has utilized new technology to create resources that have greatly enhanced educational pedagogy on campus and beyond. He founded, designed, and runs the Next Generation Science Standards Phenomena Global Learning Platform, a digital resource that supports teachers in designing sensemaking science instruction. Having garnered over 5.2 million site views from over 100 countries since its launch, the platform is used as a professional learning tool across a variety of avenues and disciplines.

Here at BU, Dr. McKenna plays a critical role in understanding the intersection between artificial intelligence technologies and impactful education instruction across campus. Last year, he worked with the College of Engineering to assess the use of structured AI demonstrations on students’ problem-solving skills around foundational mechanical engineering concepts. The results of this cross-college collaboration supported evidence-based recommendations for AI integration in high-enrollment STEM courses and contributed to BU’s emerging institutional leadership in undergraduate AI instruction. As program director for Wheelock’s AI & Education Initiative, Dr. McKenna is building on this research to explore AI’s implications in education and transform teaching and learning more broadly.

2026 Boston University Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award

The University Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award recognizes outstanding scholars who excel as teachers inside and outside the classroom and who contribute to the art and science of teaching and learning. The embrace of this dual role – scholar and teacher – is at the heart of Boston University’s mission, and this year it is our pleasure to recognize Dr. Katharine Silbaugh, professor in the School of Law.

For over thirty years, Dr. Silbaugh has strengthened Boston University through her commitment to excellent scholarship and teaching. A prolific scholar dedicated to her craft, Professor Silbaugh develops and refines insightful ideas and arguments at the forefront of family law and puts them into practice. Over the last decade, her scholarship on the legal interactions between late adolescents and institutions that pursue engagement with youth, like the tobacco industry, has created pathways for mitigating the harmful effects of these entities and led to remarkable legal changes.

With this strong scholarship as her foundation, Dr. Silbaugh creates transformative educational spaces by encouraging students to explore the distance between the unidimensional image of the law as prescriptive commands and the institutional conditions in which people live and respond to lawmaking. As she builds her classroom community, she integrates her research background around adolescent experiences and development to design coursework that engages new law students’ self-perception as emerging adults. She also centers her classroom culture around caring, creating frequent opportunities for feedback and ensuring that her students feel seen and known within their program.

Through her exceptional commitment to rigorous scholarly work, classroom instruction, and student mentorship, Dr. Silbaugh, in the words of her nominator, “[is] an excellent model of how one’s research so frequently enriches one’s teaching” and has profoundly influenced student learning and academic growth at all levels.

Please join us in congratulating Drs. McKenna and Silbaugh for their outstanding efforts and accomplishments over the last year. We would also like to give special thanks to the Provost’s Faculty Teaching Awards Committee, whose membership is listed below, for their many hours of work helping to evaluate and identify this year’s Gitner and Scholar-Teacher of the Year winners.

Provost’s Faculty Teaching Awards Committee

Amie Grills (Chair), Associate Provost for Undergraduate Affairs

Elizabeth Co, Senior Lecturer of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences (2025 Gitner Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology Recipient)

Yuri Corrigan, Associate Professor of Russian & Comparative Literature, College of Arts & Sciences (2024 Metcalf Cup & Prize for Excellence in Teaching Recipient)

Tina Durand, Clinical Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology & Applied Human Development, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development (2025 Metcalf Cup & Prize for Excellence in Teaching Recipient)

Emmanuella Erhunmwunsee, Undergraduate Student, College of Arts & Sciences (2025 Dean Elsbeth Melville Scholarship Winner)

Alessia Jones, Undergraduate Student, Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences (2025 Harold C. Case Scholarship Winner)

Abigail Robinson, PhD Candidate, Biology, College of Arts & Sciences

Romy Ruukel, Executive Director of Academic Technology & Innovation, BU Institute for Excellence in Teaching & Learning

Russell Stone, Assistant Provost for Academic Assessment

Michelle Sullivan, Professor of the Practice of Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations, College of Communication (2025 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching Recipient)

Lei Tian, Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering (2025 Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award Recipient)