Announcing the 2025 Faculty Teaching Award Winners
The Center for Teaching and Learning is pleased to announce the 2025 Faculty Teaching Award winners. Each year, the Center honors outstanding faculty contributions to Georgia Tech’s educational mission. These faculty have made students their top priority, demonstrating a commitment to developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.
Several committees comprised of past award winners carefully reviewed, deliberated, and selected the winners of each award; details about the eligibility and criteria for each award can be found on the CTL website. This year’s Faculty Teaching Award winners were recognized at the Institute Faculty and Staff Honors Luncheon on Friday, April 26th, 2025.
2025 Center for Teaching and Learning Faculty Teaching Awards:
Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award:
Kelly Griendling, Aerospace Engineering
Griendling is a lecturer in Georgia Tech’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. She has a passion for implementing innovative and evidence-based teaching methods and is committed to student success. In addition to her work in the classroom, she is the faculty advisor for the Aero Maker Space and multiple student clubs. She is also the K-12 Outreach Lead for both AE and the Georgia Space Grant Consortium which includes running the STEP summer program for high school students.
Brigitte Stepanov, Modern Languages
Stepanov is an assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies. Her pedagogy centers student curiosity, facilitated discussion, and interdisciplinary thought. She teaches undergraduate-level courses addressing the history and cultural production of North Africa, sustainability-focused courses that integrate experiential learning, graduate-level theory and foundations, as well as introductory French language classes in the summer months at Georgia Tech-Europe. She is currently finishing her book, Cruelty: Reading the In-Human, which examines literary and legal understandings of wartime violence.
Curriculum Innovation Award
Alpa Gautam, Biomedical Engineering
Gautam is a neuroscientist with a deep interest in the neuroscience of learning. Through her teaching, she studies how different learning theories impact various learner archetypes, using her classrooms as a living lab for educational research. Her work has led to the development of the Metacognitive Teaching Framework, a data-driven approach to refining instruction. Currently, she is investigating the effects of metacognitive reflection timing on learning outcomes, aiming to optimize strategies for diverse learners. Her future goals are to build on her metacognition study by incorporating AI in her courses.
Innovation and Excellence in Laboratory Instruction Award
Emily Weigel, Biological Sciences
Weigel, a senior academic professional in Biological Sciences, teaches across the Biology curriculum, including lectures, labs, and fieldwork. She also advises and conducts biology education research, inspired by her courses and students. Passionate about teaching excellence, she integrates innovative techniques in large-enrollment and lab courses, helping students connect biological concepts to real life. Her approach supports students’ confidence, motivates perseverance, and prepares them for co-curricular and post-graduate success.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award
Frank Rothaermel, Scheller College of Business
Rothaermel is a regents’ professor, holds the McDonough Chair, and is a Sloan Industry Studies Fellow. He received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Thomson Reuters identified Rothaermel as one of the “world’s most influential scientific minds” based on papers published in the top 1% of citations. He authored the widely-used textbook Strategic Management (7th edition, 2026) with Greek, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish translations. He has written 70 case studies distributed by Harvard Business Publishing, with 34 achieving “bestseller” status.
Teaching Excellence in Online Teaching Award
Cassie Mitchell, Biomedical Engineering
Mitchell is an associate professor in Biomedical Engineering. Her innovative online teaching enhances student engagement through flexible learning platforms and a state-of-the-art predictive medicine research program that fosters inclusive opportunities for impactful, published research. Mitchell has received multiple university, national, and international awards for teaching, research, and service. As a professor and a Team USA Paralympic medalist, she has inspired hundreds of mentees with her “Never, Never, Never Give Up” philosophy.
Undergraduate Educator Award
Mary Holder, Psychology
Holder is a senior academic professional in the School of Psychology and the Neuroscience Undergraduate Program. She has focused her efforts on curricular development, implementation, and assessment, in addition to teaching courses in both Psychology and Neuroscience. Holder also has served on the Institute Assessment Council and Advisory Board to the Director of Academic Advising. Recently, she became President for the Atlanta Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.
Faculty Award for Academic Outreach
Gerandy Brito, Computing Instruction
Brito earned his Ph.D. in 2017 and joined the School of Mathematics at immediately after as a Hale visiting assistant professor. In 2019, he moved to the College of Computing as a lecturer. Brito teaches various courses in the Theory thread of the computer science curriculum, including the entire Algorithm sequence, from the undergraduate class to the Master level course. He is in charge of the Algorithm course for the Online Master of Science (OMS) program. Brito has been included in the CIOS Honor Roll multiple times and received the William D. “Bill” Leahy Jr. Outstanding Instructor Award in 2021.
