Distinguished UT Health San Antonio faculty member, Bennett T. Amaechi, BDS, MSc, PhD, has been awarded the 2022 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award from The University of Texas System.
Amaechi is a professor of cariology in the School of Dentistry’s Department of Comprehensive Dentistry.
Since 2008, the regents’ awards have recognized UT System faculty members who deliver the highest quality of instruction in the classroom, laboratory, field and online. The 14 honorees from across UT System will be formally recognized during a Board of Regents’ meeting this November.
“Receiving a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award is a great honor,” said UT Health San Antonio President William L. Henrich, MD, MACP. “Only a few of them are given across the whole system and for over 20 years, Ben has committed to a standard of excellence in educating our students. We are so proud he is among those recognized.”
Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife also praised this year’s honorees.
“The UT System Board of Regents is honored to recognize top educators annually for their extraordinary dedication to the students they are equipping to be our future leaders,” Eltife said.
Award recipients receive some of the largest monetary awards in the nation as a reward for outstanding faculty performance. Each awardee receives $25,000, which will be distributed to the institution for disbursement directly to the award recipients for use in their department or program.
Chancellor James B. Milliken added, “Teaching excellence is at the core of our mission and helps ensure students with degrees from UT institutions are prepared to succeed in an ever-competitive and dynamic workforce,” he said. “The UT presidents and I express profound gratitude to the Board of Regents for their continued support of honoring exceptional teachers.”
Award candidates are vetted by their peer colleagues, students and UT president before advancing to competition at the UT System level. In their evaluations of a candidate’s teaching performance, members of the review panel consider a range of activities and criteria, including classroom expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.