Faculty members Jim Sallee and Paula Worthington have won the 2012 Harris School teaching awards. Sallee was named Best Teacher in a Core Course, and Worthington was named Best Teacher in a Non-Core Course. Each year, students select two professors to honor and recognize for their excellence and achievement in the classroom.
“I’d like to emphasize how important these awards are to the School,” said Colm O’Muircheartaigh, dean of the Harris School, at a ceremony announcing the winners of the 2012 teaching awards. “The most prestigious award we can have is one that is presented by our students. It’s truly an honor to be selected.”
Worthington, who has won the award for best Non-Core Course teaching several years in a row, received her PhD in economics from Northwestern University and began her career working for the Federal Reserve Banks in New York and Chicago, where she did policy writing, briefings and presentations. Her published critical articles have examined productivity in the manufacturing sector, lending performance by small banks and comparisons of tax burdens by state.
“In 2012, I worked with groups across a wide variety of subject areas—medical care in the fall; school lunch programs and nutrition, health and decision-making in the winter and spring terms; and social (impact) investing in the spring,” said Worthington.
“My Harris students are hard-working and creative young people, and it is a privilege to work with them on these important and interesting policy issues in a ‘workshop’ type of setting as they develop the analytical tools and policy ‘chops’ for the jobs they will take after graduation.“
Sallee is an assistant professor with the Harris School who researches topics in public economics with an emphasis on taxation and environmental policy. His current research is focused on evaluating how firms and consumers react to public policies aimed at improving the fuel economy of new vehicles.
Sallee also is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and in 2010, he was a visiting fellow at the University of California Energy Institute. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.
“Teaching is a lot of work, but it is also very rewarding when the students are like ours—intelligent, engaged and willing to work hard,” said Sallee.
“I love teaching Harris students because they want to learn for the right reasons. This makes teaching fun, and it also makes this recognition especially meaningful because I know that they would only nominate someone if they felt that person had taught them something valuable. There are many great teachers at Harris, and thus it is a real honor to have been recognized like this.”
—Prof. Chuan He
