Jill Fleuriet selected for UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers

(March 21 2018) -- K. Jill Fleuriet, associate professor of anthropology and associate dean of the Honors College, has been selected to be a Fellow in the University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She is one of only three UT System faculty members chosen this year to join this distinguished group of educators. The new members will be inducted at a ceremony in Austin on April 6.

Established in 2012, the Academy of Distinguished Teachers recognizes outstanding educators from across the UT System academic institutions. It serves as the system-level advisory and advocacy group dedicated to fostering classroom innovation, promoting interdisciplinary educational perspectives, and catalyzing the sharing of best practices in undergraduate learning across campuses in the UT System.

"Dr. Fleuriet is an exceptional example of the world-class faculty we have here at UTSA," said President Taylor Eighmy. "I am extremely proud that she will be UTSA’s newest representative on this team of thought-leaders helping to shape the future of undergraduate teaching across the entire UT System.”

Fleuriet joins psychology professor Mary McNaughton-Cassill as the second UTSA faculty member inducted into the Academy.

Fleuriet is a cultural, medical anthropologist with an expertise in health, health care and well-being in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Fleuriet became a faculty member in the UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts in 2003 and has established herself as one of UTSA's strongest and most engaging teachers.

Intellectual curiosity, excitement and a sense of interconnectedness is what Fleuriet strives to develop in her students through creating opportunities to learn in nontraditional spaces and in the classroom. Her courses include collaborative projects, research, global learning, intensive writing, and other high impact practices that teach transferable skills.

"I am very excited by the idea of system-level discussion and support of teaching excellence in relevant experiential learning for students," Fleuriet said. "I am especially eager to work with the Academy in the area of professional development. I imagine a support structure for faculty through which they would have resources, including time, to employ strategies to even better prepare our students for their chosen paths.”

One of Fleuriet's former undergraduate students sums up her dedication to students' intellectual and professional advancement:

"She considers the mentorship of all her undergraduate (and graduate) students a lifelong commitment. I imagined her as an academic parent, investing in us and making generational legacies at UTSA," said Nikky R. Greer ’08.

In 2017 Fleuriet was appointed associate dean of the Honors College. In this role, she is reimagining the college's curriculum with high impact teaching practices to better serve and prepare UTSA's diverse student population, particularly non-traditional, underrepresented and first-generation college students. 

Last year, Fleuriet was honored with a UT System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award. At UTSA she has received the President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Community Engagement (2016), President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence (2015), and the Honors College Outstanding Research Mentor Award (2007). She is a member of Advocates for Course Transformation (the UTSA component of an NSF-funded interdisciplinary teaching initiative) and the UTSA Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars. 

— KC Gonzalez

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