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2025 Awards for Excellence in Teaching
SFU’s 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award recipients are shaping student learning through inclusive, student-centred and experiential approaches.
Excellence in Teaching Award
Joel Heng Hartse, senior lecturer, Faculty of Education
Joel Heng Hartse cultivates collaborative, inquiry-driven learning environments that centre language, writing and academic literacy. In his courses, students engage in dialogue, shared exploration and critical reflection, developing skills in writing, analysis and communication across diverse contexts. His teaching connects scholarship and practice, supporting students as they grow into confident, reflective writers. Thoughtful and responsive, he fosters learning environments that are intellectually open, improvisational, inclusive, relational and grounded in curiosity.
Heng Hartse is recognized by students as deeply committed to their success and growth as academic writers and thinkers. He also advances approaches to writing pedagogy across the university and beyond. Heng Hartse’s teaching and research centre on language, writing and academic literacy, with interests spanning second language writing, academic integrity, the globalization of English and the internationalization of higher education.
To learn more, read the full story.
Angelica Lim, associate professor, School of Computing Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences
Angelica Lim fosters inclusive, hands-on learning environments that connect computing science to real-world applications and diverse experiences. In her courses, learners engage in active, practice-based work—coding in class, tackling real-world AI problems and building skills in communication, ethics and interdisciplinary thinking. She takes a holistic, integrative approach to technology education, bringing together computing, ethics and human-centred design to highlight the broader impact of this work.
Lim has led significant curriculum redesign, including transforming introductory and upper-level courses to be more relevant to today’s technological landscape. As well, she expands access to computing education through outreach programs that support underrepresented students in building confidence and pathways into STEM. She created the SFU CS Teaching Toolkit and authored Python Practice Lab (Princeton University Press), extending her impact beyond SFU, and is a recipient of the SFU Computing Science Excellence in Teaching Award. Her AI research has been featured by the BBC and TEDx, and she is recognized as one of Forbes’ "20 Leading Women in AI."
To learn more, read the full story.
Nienke van Houten, university lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences
Nienke van Houten applies innovative, evidence-based pedagogy to build student-centred learning environments. In her courses, students develop advanced skills in analyzing primary scientific literature, interpreting data and learning collaboratively through peer teaching. She uses midterm feedback to create an active dialogue with students, shaping her courses in real time and fostering a responsive, shared learning space.
van Houten’s teaching is informed by her work in decolonizing science education and her experience as an Instructional Skills Workshop facilitator. As undergraduate programs director in the Faculty of Health Sciences, she leads curriculum development and fosters a culture of teaching excellence across her unit. Her research on how students engage with primary literature continues to inform and advance evidence-based teaching practices in higher education.
To learn more, read the full story.
Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching
Kam Phung, assistant professor, Beedie School of Business
Kam Phung creates inclusive, student-centred learning environments where students from diverse backgrounds feel welcomed, heard and valued. In his courses, students engage in reflective, participatory and experiential learning that deepens their understanding of complex social and environmental issues. Drawing on his experience in social and environmental tech start-ups and sustainability-focused organizations, he connects classroom learning to real-world challenges and equips students to navigate the relationship between business and society.
Phung’s teaching is grounded in a commitment to meaningful engagement and sustained student support, fostering learning environments where all students feel confident contributing. His approach integrates current research and practice to help students critically examine innovation and change in social and environmental contexts. A multi-award-winning researcher, his work involves deep collaboration with organizations and communities and emphasizes knowledge mobilization to create broader impact.
To learn more, read the full story.
Miranda Meents, lecturer, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science
Miranda Meents fosters engaging, student-centred learning environments shaped by evidence-based pedagogy and student feedback. Her classes promote active learning through creative, choice-based projects that deepen engagement with course material. For example, botanical drawing develops students’ skills in self-evaluation, communication and observation, while forest walks incorporate Indigenous knowledge and strengthen students’ connection to the land.
Meents advances a culture of teaching excellence through leadership and community-building at both SFU and nationally. As education director of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists, she supports a growing community of practice in teaching. At SFU, she helps facilitate the Teaching Matters seminar series and has co-organized initiatives such as the Indigenous Pedagogy Reading Circle and an Indigenous Ecology Reading Community. Her teaching inquiry projects have investigated practices such as plant appreciation and ungrading.
To learn more, read the full story.
Ching-Chiu Lin, assistant professor, Faculty of Education
Ching-Chiu Lin cultivates collaborative learning environments that engage students as imaginative, reflective and socially engaged learners. Grounded in education and visual arts, her teaching uses creativity as a pathway to critical dialogue, relationship-building and social action. In her courses, students engage deeply with story, place and the possibilities of learning through the arts.
Lin’s work brings together arts-based educational research, digital storytelling, community arts education and visual research methodologies. She explores how community can serve as a site of knowledge production, where creative inquiry, pedagogical relationships and social innovation can flourish. Through her teaching and scholarship, she advances arts-based approaches to learning and fosters meaningful connections between students, communities and knowledge.
To learn more, read the full story.
Community Engaged or Experiential Education Award
Andrew Perkins, senior lecturer, Department of Geography, Faculty of Environment
Andrew Perkins creates immersive, field-based learning environments that connect classroom concepts to real-world landscapes and challenges. In his courses, students engage in hands-on learning through field trips and field schools, applying theory in situ while building skills in observation, analysis and environmental interpretation. Students take an active role in shaping their learning—designing investigations, working in teams and tackling complex problems. His teaching is thoughtfully scaffolded to support student learning in unfamiliar environments, reducing barriers while fostering confidence, independence and meaningful engagement with place.
Perkins also enhances students’ hands-on field learning by creating easy-to-use digital tools—like quick-reference resources, virtual field experiences and a fieldwork app—that support them before and during their work. Perkins is a field-based geomorphologist specializing in paleo-landscape reconstruction in south-central BC.
To learn more, read the full story.
Excellence in the Online or Blended Environment Award
Tamara O'Doherty, senior lecturer, School of Criminology, Faculty of Arts and Social
Tamara O’Doherty builds dynamic, inclusive and critically informed online learning environments that centre law, human rights and social justice. In her classes, students explore complex socio-legal issues and connect theory to real-world contexts. She designs creative, flexible courses that engage diverse learners by incorporating digital tools and interactive media.
O’Doherty’s teaching excellence is also reflected in her leadership in innovative pedagogy and online course design. She has played a key role in developing and teaching online and blended courses at scale, while mentoring colleagues and contributing to broader teaching practices across her unit. She has co-led multiple SFU-funded grants on innovative teaching practices in areas such as TA support, decolonizing pedagogies and advancing Indigenous student experiences in post-secondary education. Beyond the classroom, she contributes to research on human trafficking and sex work, publishing work that informs both scholarship and practice.
To learn more, read the full story.