Legg Mason Award

The Legg Mason Teaching Innovation Award: John Bono

John Bono goes above to foster learning in his classes by engaging in a number of innovate behaviors. For example, in his coding class he uses an innovate platform for sharing notes with students, which students have recognized was a key feature in their success in the class. Students have recognized that he “is passionate about overcoming any learning curve in order to provide a better educational experience”, and that “each homework assignment is intricately designed to extract the most effort in terms of concepts learned in class”.

Tunay Tunca, chair of Maryland Smith's Teaching Excellence Committee, announced the faculty teaching awards during a virtual spring faculty and staff assembly. Tunca is the Dean's Professor of Management Science and Operations Management at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

The Legg Mason Teaching Innovation Award: Bennet Zelner

"In an environment where many top schools are struggling to conduct their global business courses, [Bennet Zelner] used creativity and innovative thinking to design a very effective global study course to be conducted virtually," Tunca said. "Without the possibility of travel, he not only managed to bring the experience of cross‐border learning to the students, but also engaged a local company on a micro‐consulting project allowing the students to apply their learning to this company's global expansion aspirations. His approach to teaching is also innovative in the way that he asks students to find solutions to the problem posed by a case, developing the lecture through their proposed solutions."

Judy Frels, Marketing

Judy wins this award for her innovative approach and leadership in development of the Smith School’s MicroMasters Programs. She made the concept become a reality by leading the process all the way through, from selling the idea internally in Smith as well as at the campus level to securing the necessary loan from the Provost that allowed the school to take this risk to working with the graduate school to make sure the program provided the required rigor so that credits could be applied to the OMBA. Under her guidance and leadership, the program's success has established the Smith School as being a leader in online management education with our best practices being adopted by both collaborators and competitors. So far, nearly 100,000 students have been exposed to the Smith School's ideas through the seven MicroMasters courses, with an average enrollment of about 5,000 per offering. Beyond connecting us to new students, the venture has also helped us to build new capabilities in curriculum design, production and delivery, and perhaps made us readier for the current challenging environment we are experiencing.

Gerald Suarez

Professor Suarez is recognized for encouraging learning by creating a captivating and engaging classroom experience for all students and for urging students to think critically and differently about their career and life choices.

“The storytelling ability of this professor translates into some of the most incredible lectures I have ever sat through in my life. Each class isolated could be its own TED talk. This professor encourages students to develop the way they think so that they can fully realize their own potential both in and out of the classroom. I have never had a professor who is so passionate about their field and their students.”

Larry Gordon

Because of Larry Gordon's initiative, the Smith School is a leader in providing accounting students with a rigorous course in the hot cyber field and simultaneously guiding some top MS students for study in doctoral programs. Gordon is so direct and so honest in teaching students about cybersecurity. He made it so constructive and so easy to learn about the nature of cybersecurity breaches. The nominator enjoyed this session a lot.

The 2015-16 winners of the Legg Mason Award were Rajshree Agarwal (Management & Organization) and Protiti Dastidar (Management & Organization), for their creative thinking in the design and delivery format of the Smith Business and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Minors. This energetic and highly committed team took on a must-do project and carefully designed program offerings from scratch, which required them to innovate to help ensure program success. Their designs achieve economies of scale and scope while incorporating the latest instructional technologies.

The 2014-2015 winner of the Legg Mason Award is Rebecca Ratner (Marketing). She is being recognized for her efforts to improve the critical thinking skills of our students. Rebecca’s work has already had a positive impact in our undergraduate teaching, and has the potential to transform many of our courses.

Hank Lucas (Decision, Operations & Information Technologies) - Recognized for his work in blended and on-line learning. “Hank plays a pioneering role in the online/blended teaching initiatives of the Smith School and the University.”

Mark Wellman (Management & Organization) - Recognized for innovation in teaching through domestic and foreign travel. “He scheduled 18 visits with top executives, and I learned a great deal in 10 days.”

Joseph Bailey (Decision, Operations & Information Technologies) - Recognized for innovative teaching materials: “One particular innovation from Professor Bailey is the in-class games based on a spreadsheet.”

Hugh Turner (Logistics, Business & Public Policy) - Recognized for strong support of innovation approaches to learning, including inter-university case competitions.

Susan White (Finance) – Recognized for teaching innovation, including development of an extensive and resourceful student website.

Philip Evers (Logistics, Business & Public Policy) - Recognized for cutting-edge application of games, simulations and other tools in his supply chain courses.

Oliver Schlake (Management & Organization) - Recognized for innovation in developing an Entrepreneurship Conference and Expo, which has “made a positive difference in the lives of those he teaches.”

Finalist: Wolfgang Jank (Decision, Operations & Information Technologies)