Mission
Welcome to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers (ADT) at The University of Texas at El Paso. The vision of the ADT is for UTEP to provide an outstanding education to its students. In recognition of the 10th anniversary of The University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, UTEP’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers was founded in 2019. The Academy’s primary purpose is to recognize, promote, and support excellence in teaching at UTEP. Excellent teaching changes lives and transforms communities by providing students the knowledge, skills, and abilities to effect groundbreaking change through creative solutions to today’s social and economic problems in the local community and the world.
Goals of the Academy
- Recognize, celebrate, and reward outstanding teachers for exceptional contributions
- Foster and promote high-quality, innovative, and pedagogically effective teaching
- Facilitate pedagogical training and support colleagues in their teaching efforts
- Provide institutional leadership in teaching excellence at UTEP by advising the Provost and President on instructional matters and generally fostering educational discourse and initiatives
UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers Induction
On Friday, October 28, 2022, The University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers inducted 14 new members from the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 cohorts at Bauer House on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. The following UTEP ADT fellows were inducted:
Jorge Lopez
Dr. Jorge Lopez earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from The University of Texas at El Paso and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. He did postdoctoral work at the Niels Bohr Institute and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Since 1990, he has been at UTEP as Assistant, Associate and Professor, and has been Chair and Assistant Dean. Dr. Lopez has authored books, over IIO peer-reviewed, and many general-audience articles for journals, newspapers and magazines. He has delivered scientific and public lectures in many countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. His research has been funded by NSF, NASA, JPL, DOD, and NIH...
Denise Lujan
Dr. Denise Lujan is the inaugural Director for the Entering Student Experience unit at The University of Texas at El Paso. Created in 2020, ESE includes the UTEP University Studies Courses, Developmental Math, Developmental English and a host of other programs aimed at helping students transition to UTEP. She is focused on creating a holistic experience for entering students at UTEP by increasing student engagement, agency, and belonging, as well as academic success and professional preparation. Dr. Lujan has taught developmental math to underprepared students who enter UTEP for over twenty years...
Martine Ceberio
Dr. Martine Ceberio is a Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at El Paso. She joined UTEP in 2003 after obtaining her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Nantes, France (2003). Her research revolves around reliable decision-making under uncertainty, optimization, constraint solving, solving dynamical systems, and using neural networks with uncertainty. She is passionate about teaching and mentoring students. She is a fierce advocate of her students' success and seizes every opportunity to provide advice and mentoring. Her other passion is in broadening participation in Computer Science and fostering cultures of inclusion. She hosts young women high-school students as research interns in her research lab to introduce them to computing in summers...
Giulio Francia
Dr. Giulio Francia grew up in Maputo Mozambique, in Africa, and he attended the local Portuguese-speaking school A Luta Continua. Later, he moved to Mbabane in the neighboring Kingdom of Swaziland, and studied at the local Sifundzane high school and then at the Waterford Kamhlaba United Word College. He attended Bristol University in the U.K. where he earned a B.Sc. in Biochemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, working in Ian Hart's Biology of Metastasis lab at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, U.K. He then started postdoctoral training with Bob Kerbel at the University of Toronto, Canada...
Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Jessica Slade
Dr. Jessica Slade is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Early Childhood Teacher Education. Her most valued teaching achievement, besides receiving the Regents Outstanding Teaching Award, is when she has a student for more than one course and can see their progression of learning from one semester to the next. When Dr. Slade sees her student’s quality of work improve and especially when their attention to detail improves, she knows they will in turn become amazing teachers for future UTEP Miners.
Dr. Larry Lesser
Dr. Larry Lesser is an award-winning professor and songwriter who uses music to teach lessons on infinity, pi, the lottery and more. His most valued teaching achievements include incorporating language, culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion in all his courses. His memorable and effective teaching has been recognized by awards such as the 2011 Regents Outstanding Teaching Award, the 2016 Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award, and the 2021 Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award by the American Statistical Association. From 2014-2016, Dr. Lesser directed UTEP’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, which today is the Center for Faculty Leadership and Development.
