By Jill Pease
Three University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions instructors have been recognized with university and college teaching honors this spring.
Laurie Gauger, Ph.D., is the College of Public Health and Health Professions’ Undergraduate Teacher of the Year. Molly Jacobs, Ph.D., received the UF Center for Teaching Excellence 2025 Exemplary Online Teaching Award in the Student Engagement category. Alexandra Rodriguez, M.P.H., is a recipient of the UF Graduate Student Teaching Award.
A clinical associate professor in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Gauger teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in language development and disorders. She strives to lay a foundation for lifelong learning in her students as they prepare for clinical careers.
“Her ability to see and cultivate the potential in her students is extraordinary,” said former student Danielle Tjon, CCC-SLP. “She is the kind of educator whose influence extends far beyond the classroom, shaping careers, elevating the field and inspiring the next generation of clinicians with her dedication and heart.”
In the classroom, Gauger focuses on meeting students where they are, using real‑world clinical examples to help them connect theory to practice.
“Giving students the opportunity to critically think about how a patient presents based on their growing knowledge base deepens their understanding and confidence,” Gauger said.
Gauger is particularly adept at creating an engaging environment for online learning, said Charles Ellis Jr., Ph.D., a professor and chair of the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.
“Achieving excellence in online teaching is no small feat as many students struggle with online learning environments for wide ranging reasons such as limited access to state-of-the-art technology and an absence of computer literacy needed for success in online education,” Ellis said. “Yet, Dr. Gauger seems to consistently overcome this barrier by offering teaching excellence in this teaching environment where many very experienced faculty oftentimes struggle.”
Jacobs, an associate professor in the Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy, was recognized for her innovative practices in teaching HSA3111: US Healthcare System. Due to increased demand, new sections of the course, both face-to-face and online, were introduced last year.
“Teaching and learning online requires gymnastic levels of balance — interactions among the teacher, students and content must be balanced to reduce isolation, provide a sense of presence and stimulate shared meaning-making,” said PHHP instructional designer Truly McClellan Hardemon, M.Ed. “Dr. Jacobs struck the right combination of activities and interactions to provide balance that promotes student engagement and success. She intentionally designed the course to place human interactions at the forefront, which in turn provides rich exchanges for the class.”
In translating the course to an online environment, Jacobs focused on integrating motivation, interaction and critical thinking to foster connection, ownership and applied learning. To promote engagement among students, Jacobs used Yellowdig, a multimedia community-based discussion platform.
“Students choose topics that interest them, which promotes ownership, intrinsic motivation and sustained participation,” Jacobs said. “Over time, my role intentionally recedes, with students increasingly initiating discussions, responding to one another and sustaining dialogue without instructor prompting.”
Student feedback demonstrated Jacobs achieved her goal of creating an engaging and responsive class environment.
“The instructor was exceptionally attentive to individual student needs, making me feel a strong one-on-one connection during our meetings and through her prompt responsiveness to assignment questions,” a student wrote. “Her consistent availability and clear feedback significantly fostered a positive and effective learning environment.”
Rodriguez, a Public Health Ph.D. candidate in the social and behavioral sciences concentration, was recognized as an industrious and innovative graduate teaching assistant by the UF Graduate School. This spring, she is teaching two courses: PHC 3453: Leveraging the Arts to Promote Public Health and PHC 4418: Social, Economic, and Environmental Drivers of Health. The multimedia coursework also includes several applied assignments Rodriguez designed to give students practical experience with professional communication and advocacy tools.
The content for the Leveraging the Arts to Promote Public Health course, in particular, aligns with Rodriguez’s research with the UF Center for Arts in Medicine and the Jameel Arts and Health Lab. Her efforts to position arts engagement as a health behavior have led to leadership roles in arts and health with the United Nations General Assembly and the World Health Organization, activities that inform her teaching, Rodriguez said.
“These experiences significantly enrich my teaching, and I intentionally integrate the most relevant developments from this global work into the course so that students gain exposure to real‑world applications and emerging international priorities,” Rodriguez said.
Through unique experiences, such as curated tour of the Harn Museum of Art with an emphasis on the intersection of health and the arts, Rodriguez is able to guide students toward new ways of seeing and thinking about the arts’ role in health and wellbeing.
“[The course] opened my mind to an intersection that I genuinely never would have thought of,” a student wrote. “I might have been one of the doubters at the beginning of the semester, who thought that there was no way the arts would ever be useful in the scientific field. I absolutely plan to integrate social prescription and other art forms into my career as physician assistant.”
