Mount Allison music professor awarded prestigious 3M National Teaching Fellowship
2010-03-12 12:12:00
SACKVILLE, NB – Dr. Elizabeth Wells, a music professor and head of the Music department at Mount Allison University, has been awarded a prestigious 3M National Teaching Fellowship. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the award is widely regarded as Canada’s top teaching honour and recognizes teaching excellence and educational leadership.
“We are delighted with this news,” says Dr. Robert Campbell, President and Vice- Chancellor of Mount Allison University. “In her eight years at the university, Elizabeth Wells has emerged as a passionate teacher with courses that are rich communities of learning. On behalf of the entire Mount Allison University community, I congratulate Elizabeth on this latest achievement.”
Wells has developed some of Mount Allison’s most innovative and provocative Arts courses that explore the cultural impact of modern musicians, women and music, and music and difference.
“My job is the easiest in the world because I teach the most interesting subject – Music History,” she says. “Music remains a fundamental human mystery, considered by many the highest manifestation of human expression. I am thrilled to be named a 3M Teaching Fellow and to join a group of distinguished professors across Canada who are dedicated to teaching excellence. Mount Allison rewards and supports teaching, and it is this encouraging environment that has allowed me to develop my teaching practice.”
Wells embodies the concept of teacher-scholar. Devoted to the study of her discipline, she is equally committed to creating a vibrant learning experience for her students and to sharing her passion with others. She has inspired teaching colleagues at Mount Allison and beyond. A frequent and popular presenter at Atlantic regional and national conferences, her leadership in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning includes 20 presentations and publications on teaching.
As the 3M Selection Committee notes, “Dr. Wells blends the characteristics of exceptional teacher and influential leader.”
Wells has received many University and regional awards prior to being named a 3M Teaching Fellow, including Mount Allison’s Herbert and Leota Tucker Teaching Award, the Association of Atlantic Universities’ Distinguished Teacher Award, and the J.E.A. Crake Award that recognizes excellence in teaching and scholarly teaching.
Wells is the fifth Mount Allison professor to receive the 3M Fellowship, giving the University one of the best records in the Maritimes. Previous recipients are modern languages and literatures professor emeritus and director of Tintamarre, Alex Fancy; physics professor, Dr. Robert Hawkes; Dean of Social Sciences and geography professor, Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray; and English professor, Dr. Robert Lapp.
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