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Tina Durand Awarded Metcalf Cup & Prize for Teaching Excellence

The award for BU’s top honor for educators was presented by BU president Melissa Gilliam

BU Wheelock faculty member Tina Durand was recently awarded the Metcalf Cup & Prize, Boston University’s top honor for teaching excellence. BU President Melissa Gilliam announced the award at this year’s Senior Breakfast, which took place on May 2.

A clinical associate professor of applied human development, Durand is the director of the PhD in Counseling Psychology & Applied Human Development program at BU Wheelock. She is a developmental psychologist with a background in community-based programming for families, and a former K–12 public school teacher.

“I am so honored and thrilled to receive this award,” says Durand. “Students and teaching have always been at the center of my work as a professor, and Wheelock students have inspired and nurtured my pedagogy in new and exciting ways. To be recognized for my teaching among colleagues and students who are so committed, empathic, and passionate about improving the lives of children, youth, families, and communities is something I am deeply grateful for.”

Durand’s research and teaching address critically conscious teacher pedagogy, school contextual factors that promote student success in middle school, and the development of ethnic-racial consciousness and advocacy among adolescents. She is the author of the recently published book, Making the Case for Race in Middle School: Supporting Adolescents and Teachers in Critical Racial Consciousness and Advocacy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025).

“Dr. Durand’s transformative approach to teaching is fueled by her deep commitment to student success and educational equity,” says BU Wheelock Dean Penny Bishop. “She has more than earned this award for her outstanding contributions as an educator to Boston University, and we are delighted that she’s being recognized with this honor.”

The Metcalf Cup & Prize, established in 1973 and supported by a gift from the late BU trustee Arthur G. B. Metcalf, represents the university’s most prestigious recognition of teaching excellence. Each year, the University’s Provost’s Faculty Teaching Awards Committee selects one faculty member to receive the Metcalf Cup & Prize, and up to two faculty members are selected to receive the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching. Nominees are judged on a range of criteria, including approach to teaching, classroom observations, student evaluations, course syllabi, and letters of recommendation from department chairs.

BU Wheelock’s Leslie Dietiker received the 2022 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching and Carol Jenkins received it in 2013.