All Drake faculty, staff, and students are invited and encouraged to nominate a Drake faculty member for the Madelyn Levitt Teacher Award, created in 1994 in honor of Madelyn Levitt’s commitment to Drake, and her ongoing interest in faculty and staff achievement and academic excellence.  

Each year this award recognizes commitment to student success on the Drake campus by honoring a member of the Drake University faculty for excellence in teaching.   To nominate an individual, please submit a letter that speaks to the following qualifications:   

•   an informed mind in inspirational dialogue with students.
•   integrity in personal relationships.
•   rigor in intellectual endeavors.
•   contagious enthusiasm for her/his subject matter.

A nominee must be a faculty member holding the rank of instructor, or above, and in at least her/his fourth academic year of service.  A nominee cannot have won this award within the past five years. The letter of nomination is due to Deputy Provost Jimmy Senteza no later than February 16, 2024.  The letter should be sent as an attachment to jimmy.senteza@drake.edu and madison.bemus@drake.edu. 

The nominated individual will be notified by the Provost’s Office of her/his nomination and asked if they are willing to be considered.  

At the nominee’s acceptance, the nominator will be asked to collect the following supporting material and submit it to madison.bemus@drake.edu by March 16, 2024:   

• a curriculum vitae;
• a short statement, by the nominee, of educational philosophy or about methods of teaching;
• teaching evaluations for the nominee for the previous two semesters.

A minimum of one additional letter supporting the nomination must be submitted. At least one letter of support must be from a current student and at least one letter of support must come from a faculty member, and there may be no more than five letters including the nomination letter and letters supporting the nomination. 

Electronic submission of materials is required. Send all documents to madison.bemus@drake.edu. The 2024 recipient of the Madelyn Levitt Teacher Award will be announced at one of the spring 2024 commencements.

Additional information is available here.

— Jimmy Senteza, Deputy Provost