2023 Teaching Excellence Award Recipients Named

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Three faculty members from the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University were honored with the college’s Teaching Excellence Award for 2023. Gabi Eissa, Yan Luo and James Vogt were selected for the award for their outstanding skill in the classroom and for consistent dedication to their students. The three were chosen for the award by the members of the college’s Faculty Development Committee. 

Gabi Eissa

Since joining Fowler’s management department in 2018, associate professor Gabi Eissa has combined his teaching with his extensive research on behavioral ethics, leadership and workplace deviance. He designed his Organizational Behavior and Leadership (BA 673) and Management and Organizational Behavior (BA 350) classes to provide students with insight on how specific leadership and subordinate behaviors impact an organization’s effectiveness, practices and overall environment. 

Eissa is regarded as “caring” and “engaging” by his students and he is known for using clips from “The Office” and interactive events to make his classroom lessons memorable. 

In addition to the Teaching Excellence award, Eissa has received multiple teaching awards over the course of his career, including the Outstanding Teaching Associate Award at Oklahoma State University. While at the University of Wisconsin, he was recognized six times for his teaching excellence and for positively influencing students’ learning experiences. He also received UW’s Outstanding Faculty Award for teaching effectiveness from their MBA Consortium for his work with graduate students. 

Yan Luo

As a professor in Fowler’s Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy, Yan Luo, is no stranger to teaching awards. She’s earned accolades from numerous organizations at SDSU, including being named “Professor of the Year” by the university’s Beta Gamma Sigma chapter (2018), Fowler’s Outstanding Faculty Contribution award (2018) and Most Influential Faculty by Fowler’s top undergraduate accounting student (2017). 

Luo has made a concerted effort to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into her teaching and learning outcomes by giving students data analytics assignments which allow them to visualize the barriers in the accounting industry for women and underserved communities. They are then encouraged to discuss creative solutions to the issue with the objective of making them effective leaders as they enter the workplace. 

Additionally, Luo has also acted as a mentor to four students who have successfully applied for the prestigious Public Company Account Oversight Board (PCAOB) scholarships and to numerous students involved in SDSU’s undergraduate research program and the Weber Honors College Research Program.

James Vogt

As an expert in the areas of financial fraud and forensic accounting, James Vogt, also a certified financial examiner (CFE), has devoted countless hours teaching his students how to root out potential criminal activity by detecting fiscal irregularities.  He currently serves as a lecturer in Fowler’s Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy, where he teaches Reporting for Accountants (ACCTG 390W), Fraud Examination (ACCTG 505) and Forensic Accounting (ACCTG 705). 

Vogt is also recipient of the Glazer Outstanding Lecturer Fellowship which is given to lecturers in the Fowler College of Business who have demonstrated a history of outstanding teaching and service to their students and to the university. 

Describing himself as “passionate about teaching,” Vogt says that he loves making a difference in the lives of his students. Students call him a “caring” and “accessible” faculty member that offers good feedback, while helping to make them better public speakers and presenters.  

Eissa, Luo and Vogt received their awards on March 22, 2024, when they each offered presentations to other Fowler faculty members outlining their perspective and approach to teaching effectiveness.