Three Fowler Faculty Members Honored with 2021 Teaching Excellence Awards

Three members of the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University were named as recipients of the 2021 Teaching Excellence Awards by the college’s Faculty Development Committee. This year’s honorees are:

Nancy Jones
Lecturer Nancy Jones joined the Fowler’s Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy as the school’s expert in SAP and business applications software in 2013. Some of Jones’ innovative teaching pedagogies include a virtual interactive muesli factory used during a business simulation that allows students to determine the outcome of their business decisions in real-time, and the use of animated illustrations during her lectures. 

Her use of animation earned Jones one of SDSU’s inaugural Faculty Forward Awards in 2020 during the pandemic when all classes were taught online. Jones said she created the animated content to “make the class more engaging and impactful.” 

“Providing students with a quality learning experience has its intrinsic rewards, but recognition from my peers in the college is rewarding on a different level,” said Jones. “This award encourages me to continue to innovate meaningful learning experiences for my students, and I am so very appreciative to all those who continue to support me in my efforts.”

Martina Musteen
Management professor, Martina Musteen, is no stranger to teaching awards: She was named Most Influential Professor by the college’s top MBA student in 2019; she received SDSU’s Senate Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010, and she was honored as the national Olympus Emerging Educator in 2008. 

Since she came to SDSU in 2006, Musteen has been teaching international entrepreneurship and international business students, many of whom seem to agree with the selection committees saying she “is one of the best at SDSU” and “her classes are entertaining and very informative.” 

“Teaching and connecting students to companies, locally and internationally, and seeing that both benefit and learn is incredibly rewarding in itself,” said Musteen. “Receiving this award is the icing on the cake. I feel incredibly honored and inspired.”

 

Patrick Smith
A relative newcomer to Fowler, associate finance professor Patrick Smith began his academic career at SDSU after earning his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in 2016. Currently, he teaches real estate finance to undergraduates where he frequently creates algorithms and machine learning applications to analyze real estate data to share with his students and use in his research. 

Smith originally applied to SDSU when he realized the Fowler College of Business was one of the few business schools committed to teaching future real estate professionals. “I am very fortunate to work at a university and in a department that views real estate as an integral part of finance,” he said. “I am equally grateful and humbled to be recognized for teaching a subject that is vitally important both to me and to our society. Helping my students to understand real estate finance and knowing they use that information in their professional careers is extremely rewarding to me as an educator.”