To celebrate our faculty, staff, and innovative teaching practices at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM), the Office of Vice Provost for Academic Excellence, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Assessment and Curriculum Support Center, and the General Education Office jointly launched the Innovation and Impact Showcase initiative in 2021.
The Innovation and Impact Showcase (IIS) aims to celebrate innovative and high-impact teaching practices and to generate a repository of these practices as resources and inspirations.
We congratulate the 2025-2026 IIS Awardees:
- Brett Oppegaard (Journalism/School of Communication and Information, College of Social Sciences): Diacritical Marks Matter: Novel GenAI Webtool Supports Hawaiian Language Use
- David Nisthal (Social Work, Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health): Training Graduate Students in Real-World Scientific Practice with Responsible AI Integration
- Jeff Hui (College of Engineering, College of Engineering): Real world workforce development
- Jimmy Chen (Office of Medical Education, John Burns School of Medicine): Project-based learning
- Joseph Daniel Foukona (History, College of Arts, Languages and Letters): Decolonizing Library Treasures: Unearthing Empire Legacy in Oceania
- Kevin Nute (Architecture, School of Architecture): Adaptive Reuse as a Critical Thinking Skill
- Michelle Kawēlauokealoha Wright (Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge): He Aliʻi Ka ʻĀina: Place-Based Cultural Research Using Online Repositories
- Minako McCarthy (Family and Consumer Sciences/Fashion Design and Merchandising, College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources): Real-World-linked Hands-on Practical Pedagogy
- Miyoko Pettit-Toledo (Law, William S. Richardson School of Law): Procedure in Practice: The Critical Writing Lab
- Yeonjung Jane Lee (Social Work, Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health): Active Learning to prepare students to serve diverse older adults
- Young Cho (Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources): Training Graduate Students in Real-World Scientific Practice with Responsible AI Integration
We thank the contributions of the committee members (Stephanie Buelow, Hazel Gedikli, Rachel Mamiya Hernandez, Yao Zhang Hill, Rochelle Pi’ilani Kaaloa, Eirik Lohr, Paul McKimmy, Rosalie Paradise, Austin Directo) and reviewers who provided detailed and constructive feedback to our applicants: Benjamin Fairfield, Jamie Simpson Steele, Kalikoaloha Martin, Karen Jolly, Lorina Riley, Manca Sustarsic, Marta Gonzalez-Lloret, Mary Shin Kim, Monica Labriola, Peter Leong, Philip Williams, Rachel Hernandez, Sai Bhatawadekar, Shelece Easterday, Sothy Eng, Stephanie Furuta, Thomas Quattlebaum, and Yao Z. Hill.
