2026 Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Award
The Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Award recognizes excellence in teaching and advising Range Management students by faculty and instructors in the early stages of their careers, with fewer than 10 years of teaching experience.
This year’s recipient is an assistant professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, where he joined the faculty in 2022. He teaches Range Ecology, a three-credit undergraduate course that combines lecture and laboratory instruction, and recently helped develop the Texas A&M University-Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory undergraduate internship program.
Although early in his faculty career, he brings extensive teaching experience, having supported and taught undergraduate courses in a variety of roles since 2009. Since joining Texas A&M, he has also served as co-PI on three funded proposals that secured more than $270,000 in research support.
His scholarly contributions include 14 articles and book chapters as lead or co-author. He also serves as Associate Editor for Rangeland Ecology and Management and Biological Invasions.
Students consistently praise his enthusiasm, accessibility, and commitment to their success. One student described him as bringing “kindness, excitement, and pure passion” to the classroom, making challenging topics engaging while strengthening critical-thinking skills and broadening perspectives.
Colleagues describe him as an outstanding instructor whose courses are rigorous, engaging, and student-centered. Through flipped-classroom strategies, student-led discussions, group activities, and field-based learning, he helps students become independent and creative thinkers. They also emphasize his effectiveness as an advisor, particularly for first-generation, multicultural, and multilingual students, noting his ability to balance high expectations with strong support.
Course evaluations consistently highlight his enthusiasm, subject-matter expertise, and responsiveness to student questions. As one colleague summarized, he serves as an exemplar of teaching excellence, making a lasting impact on his students, department, and the broader field of Range Science.
