Teneille Brown – Professor
Distinguished Teaching Award
“Professor Teneille Brown is one of the College of Law’s most outstanding professors, and we are lucky to have her on our faculty. I am constantly receiving glowing feedback from students on Professor Brown’s teaching methods and philosophy. In addition to being applauded for her mastery of the materials, clear communication of expectations and content, and exceptional preparedness, she is frequently innovating new ways of connecting with her students. This is essential during this pandemic. She reports that she spent countless hours over the summer listening to podcasts and attending bootcamps to improve her online teaching skills, and to fully realize a commitment to the Pedagogies of Care. If you are not familiar with this philosophy, it recognizes the humanity of students and the professor’s role as a compassionate teacher and role model. Research demonstrates that unlike the intimidating and exclusionary law school classrooms of the last century, all students learn better when they feel respected and when they know their professors have a deep commitment to their success. Professor Brown embodies this philosophy both inside and outside of the classroom, and her commitment to student learning shows in every aspect of her course design and implementation. She cares deeply about her students.”
Randy Dryer – Professor (Lecturer)
Distinguished Teaching Award
“Within the juris doctor (J.D.) program, Professor Dryer developed the Pretrial Practice class, which has been a mainstay of the JD skills-based curriculum for years. This class requires exceptional teaching skills, as Professor Dryer must find engaging ways to teach students skills while not being involved in a real-life trial. In addition, he also developed two new skills courses titled Technology and Modern Litigation and Taking and Defending Depositions. In all three courses he uses innovative teaching methods involving course blogs, real-time polling software, group exercises, role playing, and numerous formative assessment tools. The dominant teaching pedagogy of legal education, the Socratic Method, has remained largely the same since first utilized in the 19th century. Professor Dryer is to be applauded for his willingness to think ‘outside the box’ of legal education to best teach his students.”
Jorge Contreras – Professor
Distinguished Research Award
“Professor Contreras conducts research at the intersections of intellectual property law, science policy and technology development. In eleven books and more than one hundred scholarly articles and book chapters, he draws on historical, legal and economic sources to shed new light on the processes of innovation and access to technology. He has spoken and lectured around the world, and has been widely cited by scholars, courts and governmental agencies in multiple countries. Professor Contreras was one of the founders of the Open COVID Pledge, a legal framework that facilitated the contribution of an estimated half-million patents to the fight against COVID-19, and his forthcoming book ‘The Genome Defense: The Epic Legal Battle over Who Owns Your DNA’ (Algonquin) brings to life the unprecedented civil rights lawsuit that ended gene patenting in America.”