Civil engineering professor Mohsen Shahandashti and social work associate professor Karen Magruder have received the 2025 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.
Since 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards have been a way to recognize UT System educators who have demonstrated a commitment to teaching excellence through effectiveness, innovation and creativity according to the UT System website.
The awards are a symbol of the importance placed on the provision of teaching and are used as an incentive for others to work on enhancing student learning.
Up to 15 awards are given every year. Nominations begin in February and end in May, and the recipients are announced in September, with their awards presented during the November Board of Regents meeting. Professors who receive the award are given $25,000, a certificate and a medallion.
Karen Magruder, associate professor of practice in social work, has been named a recipient of the 2025 UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards.
Courtesy of Karen Magruder
Karen Magruder
For Magruder, teaching social work is about more than just classwork or grades. The associate professor of practice said she focuses on making online learning more humanized, even when she and her students aren’t in the same room. She said she tries to make the courses interactive, organized and easy for students to connect with.
“I really try to be student-centered,” Magruder said. “Humanizing online education has really been something that I’ve leaned into.”
Her teaching style combines knowledge and empathy, she said. To Magruder, a good professor isn’t just someone who knows their subject but someone who’s approachable and makes students feel cared for.
“A lot of times, it’s more about the passion, or the authenticity, or the enthusiasm, the availability,” she said.
Magruder’s story at UTA started years before she began teaching. She earned her master’s degree in social work from the university, then came back as an adjunct instructor before joining the faculty full time.
While teaching, she finished her Doctor of Social Work degree earlier this year at the University of Kentucky, and leads the School of Social Work’s new doctoral program.
Magruder didn’t always plan on becoming a professor, but she said it was on her radar after she took a career aptitude test in high school.
“It was kind of tied for top three, and it said the three roles I was best suited for would be being a counselor, a manager or a teacher,” she said. “And now I’m all three.”
Magruder said she wants students to see how what they learn connects to real people and communities.
“I just know that they’re going to make a huge impact in their work,” she said. “It’s really rewarding and fulfilling to me.”
Magruder said winning the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award was both exciting and humbling. She said she feels thankful for the people who helped get her to this point.
“I’m just incredibly grateful to receive that recognition and acknowledgment of all of the efforts and hard work and everything,” she said.
Mohsen Shahandashti, civil engineering professor and associate dean of administration in the College of Engineering, has been named a recipient of the 2025 UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards. Shahandashti has developed and taught 10 graduate and undergraduate courses at UTA.
Mohsen Shahandashti
Nothing is a stupid question to Shahandashti, civil engineering professor and associate dean of administration in the College of Engineering. He has worked at UTA for 11 years and said that there is a reason he is here: to help his students learn.
Shahandashti said he always knew he was going to become a teacher. As an undergraduate student, he was a teaching assistant, sometimes not getting paid for his work. He said he knew he wanted to build things and work with math and physics.
After talking with several professors in different areas, he said, he decided on civil engineering. Since he was a PhD student, Shahandashti has looked for opportunities to mentor and teach undergraduate students.
“My passion has been in teaching forever,” Shahandashti said. “It feels very good when you are recognized for something that your heart is in.”
The most important part of teaching is the students, he said. Despite all his research, labs and patents, he said the best thing has been watching his students grow and become successful outside of the university.
“It seems that a piece of me will live forever with them and their lives,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Office of the Provost reached out and told him he was nominated, he said. After his nomination, he filled out forms detailing his accomplishments at UTA, which included the courses and curricula he had created.
Shahandashti said the award means a lot to him. Teaching is a pillar of a university, he said, and it should be taken seriously.
“I hope this award shows others that they can do it, and I hope that it motivates them to be better teachers,” he said. “This award is important not because of just me, because it is signifying the importance of a profession.”
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