Lewis, Shannon among 2022 Meigs Professors

Five University of Georgia faculty members have been named Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professors, the university’s highest recognition for excellence in instruction.

“Meigs Professors are an elite group of faculty members at an institution that places a great value on outstanding instruction,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I congratulate the recipients of this significant honor and thank them for their exemplary dedication to our students.”

Steven P. Lewis

Lewis is an inspirational instructor who cares deeply for the intellectual growth of his students. In the classroom, he uses active learning strategies to help students make connections between course material, their own experiences and the world they inhabit. While at UGA, he has pioneered the use of Eric Mazur’s “Peer Instruction” pedagogy in large introductory physics courses. This method uses the think-pair-share strategy in parallel with lecturing to help students build a strong conceptual understanding of the material while also building problem-solving and communications skills.

Lewis also has been instrumental in introducing the SCALE-UP pedagogy, which facilitates active and collaborative learning, to UGA. As the co-leader of a SCALE-UP physics course, Lewis helped oversee the remodeling of classroom spaces in the Physics Building to make them more conducive to student-centered pedagogies. His vision for reimagining the spaces of STEM teaching has inspired several other departments on campus, as well as the Science Learning Center.

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Sarah Shannon

Shannon provides her students with innovative active learning courses and engages students through a holistic mentoring model. Her commitment to mentoring has played a pivotal role in helping students discover their passions and talents.

Shannon’s teaching excellence is evident in her service-learning course, Inside-Out. This course brings UGA students together with people who are incarcerated at the local jail in a shared learning environment. Her students describe this as the most meaningful academic and social experiences of their college careers.

Shannon also currently serves as undergraduate coordinator in the department of sociology. She has trained and mentored 16 undergraduate students through the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities program. Along with this role, she is also an enthusiastic mentor to graduate students in the department. Shannon is especially devoted to securing funding for research assistants and developing them as academic researchers.

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Congratulations to these inspirational colleagues. Two of the best!

Image: Sarah Shannon (Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA)