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Ursula Shepherd, associate professor of university honors and biology, was honored at the U.S. Professors of the Year Award ceremony in Washington D.C. last Thursday. Only four teachers from across the nation each year are awarded the title. Shepherd is the first to be recognized in UNM’s history.

Honors professor awarded U.S. Professor of the Year

Honors Biology professor Ursula Shepherd never intended to teach.

“I wanted to be a great novelist, a doctor or a lawyer, never a college professor,” she said. “It’s an accidental journey I won’t take time to tell you about, but I will include one secret: I flunked out of college at 19, and the course that was the last straw was biology. Yet here I am.”

Shepherd’s journey paid off Thursday at the White House as she became the first UNM professor to receive a U.S. Professor of the Year award.

Shepherd is one of only four college professors nationwide to be honored this year. Honors professor Leslie Donovan said the award is likely the most prestigious award any UNM faculty will get this year, and possibly for several years to come.

“This is the first and only time any UNM faculty member has been honored for this type of award at either the state or national level,” she said.

Shepherd said the award validates her work as a professor.

“I demand the best of all my students and of myself,” she said in a press release. “My classes are highly interactive, and I practice a form of guided discussion in which no student is allowed to hide for long.”

Shepherd said her approach to teaching is an interactive one and she is constantly trying new things to help her students learn.

“The most important thing is getting students to be engaged, be interested when they are in the classroom,” she said. “At some point I was desperate enough, and things were hard enough that I was willing to try anything. You have to be like a comedian, willing to make a fool of yourself; learning doesn’t just happen sitting down in a classroom.”

Honors program director Rosalie Otero said one of Shepherd’s most successful classes is the biodiversity program she teaches in Australia.

“Those of you who have been fortunate enough to participate in one of Dr. Shepherd’s classes know that she does challenge her students and has high expectations of them,” Otero said. 

Shepherd’s former student Justine Garcia said she originally signed up for Shepherd’s Biodiversity of Australia class just for the opportunity to go to Australia, but she got more than she bargained for.

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“I experienced the magical and weird beauty of Australia and its flora and fauna, but I also learned how to investigate that beauty in a systematic and meaningful way,” she said. “Most memorably, I also learned Ursula does a very accurate imitation of a koala and that she is a pretty good wrestler — even in beach sand.”

Garcia said the way Shepherd treats her students sets her apart from other professors.

“Ursula’s treatment of undergraduates as mature and capable scientists allows them to develop advanced skills and take ownership in their projects,” she said. “A professor visiting Ursula’s lab once commented that her students were working on some of the most innovative and far-reaching projects he had ever seen for undergrads.”

Shepherd said her job is all about the students.

“I believe every student who passes through my classroom has the ability to be outstanding,” she said. “It’s my job to help them find what they are passionate about. I love my field of biology — the deep questions about how the world works.”

Reception for Ursula Shepherd
Dec. 2
3-5:30 p.m.
Honors Center
All are welcome to attend

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