Highlights from UCI Teach Day 2025 and the 33rd Annual Celebration of Teaching

On September 18, 2025, the UC Irvine Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI) hosted its third annual UCI Teach Day, a day-long celebration and conference focused on pedagogical innovation, instructional excellence, and fostering equity and inclusion. This year, UCI Teach Day centered on the theme “Cultivating Inclusion: From Campus Culture to Classroom Practice,” emphasizing the importance of creating equitable and inclusive learning environments across campus.

“We wanted to recognize that creating an inclusive teaching culture cannot be accomplished solely by individual instructors,” explained Brian Sato, DTEI Associate Dean. “Teaching is a team sport that requires folks in the classroom—instructors, graduate TAs, and learning assistants—as well as campus and department leaders to ensure that we can all be successful in this mission. Teach Day brings everyone together to recognize this.”   

Drawing a crowd of 186 faculty, graduate students, and staff, UCI Teach Day kicked off in the Anteater Learning Pavilion with a keynote address delivered by Dr. Archie Holmes, Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University of Texas system. In his speech, Dr. Holmes presented on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report titled Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Supporting Equitable and Effective Teaching and offered recommendations for fostering equitable and effective learning environments.

Following the welcome address, attendees had the opportunity to attend one of four concurrent breakout sessions hosted by UC Irvine faculty and instructors, graduate students, DTEI staff, and other campus partners:

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  Attendees participate in a concurrent session. Photo credit: Jeanette Reveles, OVPTL Communications.

  Building a Cohesive AI Literacy Framework: Findings and Recommendations from UC Irvine’s FATE Working Group on GenAI

  • This presentation shared findings from the Faculty Academy for Teaching Excellence (FATE) working group’s campuswide survey on AI use, highlighting faculty, student, administrator, and staff concerns and opportunities for thoughtful AI integration. This session invited participants to collaborate​ in the development of a UC Irvine AI Literacy Framework that balances innovation, equity, and academic integrity while positioning UC Irvine as a national leader in AI-integrated education.
• Craft a Customized AI Experience for Your Students Using ClassChat
  • UC Irvine Professors William Hernandez (Paul Merage School of Business) and Michael McBride (School of Social Sciences) shared how they successfully integrated AI into their teaching practice with ClassChat, part of UC Irvine’s proprietary ZotGPT Chat platform. The panel discussion was followed by a brief demonstration of how attendees could create a curated, customized AI chatbot to bring intentionality, collaboration, transparency, and specificity to educational AI usage.
• Partners in Pedagogy: How DTEI Summer Graduate Scholars are Transforming Teaching and Learning at UC Irvine
  • For the past five years, the DTEI Summer Graduate Scholars Program has served as a catalyst for pedagogical change at UC Irvine, fostering graduate student and faculty partnerships to advance equity, accessibility, and inclusion in undergraduate teaching. The program also responds to campus’s most pressing needs, addressing timely priorities such as promoting wellness, strengthening instructional team cohesion, and building critical AI literacy. This session provided an overview of the program, highlighted its campuswide impact, and showcased participant innovations.
• Introducing Experiential Learning in the Classroom: Case Studies at UCI and Best Practices
  • This workshop presented experiential learning case study opportunities at UC Irvine, available campus resources, and best practices for adding experiential learning into the classroom and curricula. The session offered guidance on integrating experiential learning at various levels: in individual classrooms, across schools, system-wide, and with external partners.
    

    Attendees participate in a digital poster session. Photo credit: Jeanette Reveles, OVPTL Communications.

In the afternoon, attendees reconvened for the first-ever UCI Teach Day digital poster session. During this session, UC Irvine faculty and DTEI staff presented on a variety of research projects and studies, including those focused on ethical AI usage, adaptive grading, the impact of faculty and instructor support communities, and much more.

Check out video highlights from UCI Teach Day 2025.

UCI Teach Day concluded with the 33rd Annual Celebration of Teaching, a special award ceremony that honors faculty, instructors, and graduate students who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to undergraduate teaching at UC Irvine. Nominated by peers, students, and staff, these educators exemplify excellence across five distinct award categories:

Dr. De Gallow Professor of the Year:

• • Suellen Hopfer, Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health

Lecturer of the Year: 

• • Eric Lindsay, Claire Trevor School of the Arts

Excellence in Digital Learning: 

• • Jim Brody, Henry Samueli School of Engineering

Excellence in Pedagogical Development: 

• • Ana Elisa Garcia Vedrenne, Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences

Most Promising Future Faculty Member: 

• • Esther Hessong, Henry Samueli School of Engineering
  • Yicong Huang, Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
  • Nolan Huck, School of Medicine
  • Miles Valencia, Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences

In addition to the winners of the campus-wide teaching awards, the Celebration of Teaching also recognized one instructor selected by the Dean of each School for their exemplary teaching. This year’s Deans’ Honorees were:

• • Myrona DeLaney, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
  • Raju Metherate, Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences
  • Kenneth Murphy, Paul Merage School of Business
  • Kristine Houston, School of Education
  • Quinton Smith, Henry Samueli School of Engineering
  • John Murillo III, School of Humanities
  • Sergio Gago-Masagué, Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences
  • Richard Lee, School of Law
  • Paola H. German, Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing
    

    DTEI Executive Director Danny Mann hands out awards at the 2025 Celebration of Teaching. Photo credit: Jeanette Reveles, OVPTL Communications.

  • Herman Johannesmeyer, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Julie Ferguson, School of Physical Sciences
  • Wenjun Fan, Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health
  • Sule Guney, School of Social Ecology
  • Stan Bailey, School of Social Sciences

Reflecting on this year’s Celebration of Teaching, Danny Mann, DTEI Executive Director, said: 

“It was wonderful to honor the awardees alongside members of the campus community, including colleagues and family members. We were inspired by heart-warming quotes from nominators and celebrated the massive impact that our educators have on our students.”

Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s UCI Teach Day and Celebration of Teaching events. For anyone who missed out, please enjoy video highlights from UCI Teach Day 2025. We hope you will join us at next year’s event!

Looking for teaching and learning support now that the 2025-26 academic year is underway? The DTEI team is here to help! Visit the DTEI website to learn more about DTEI support services and resources.