Nation’s largest award for top teaching brings Rice psychology prof to Baylor

Every two years, Baylor’s Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching brings one of the nation’s best professors not already here at Baylor to Waco for a semester, allowing BU students to benefit from his or her excellence in the classroom. First awarded in 1991, the award remains our country’s only national award presented by a college or university for exceptional teaching, and carries with it an exceptional monetary reward for both the professor and his/her school — evidence of Baylor’s commitment to providing our students with top teachers.

The 2016 Cherry Award recipient is Dr. Michelle Hebl, a professor of psychology at Rice University. Hebl is expected to teach in residence at Baylor during the spring 2017 semester.

After earning degrees from from Smith College, Texas A&M and Dartmouth, Hebl has taught at Rice since 1998 (with the exception of a six-month stint as a visiting scholar at Stanford). A five-time recipient of Rice’s George R. Brown Prize for Superior Teaching, Hebl has also been honored for her work in the classroom at the national level by the Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. She has received research grants from the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation and the National Cancer Institute, and in 2005 became the first Rice professor ever nominated and chosen by Rice students as the university’s Commencement Speaker.

Hebl and her husband, David, have five children. An avid runner, in 2011 she completed a personal goal of completing a marathon in all 50 states.

Sic ’em, Dr. Hebl!