This Year’s Deckers Prize Winners on Their Love of Teaching

Provost Alec Gallimore, Sarah Schott, Lisa Huettel, Deondra Rose, and Vice Provost Lee D. Baker. photo by Gabrielle Stanfield

Duke University awarded its 2025-2026 Judith Deckers Prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching this year to three faculty members — Lisa Huettel, Deondra Rose, and Sarah Schott. The prize winners were chosen from 225 faculty candidates identified last spring during an open nomination period, during which Duke faculty, staff, alums, and current students submitted more than 680 nominations.

"Each of our honorees displays outstanding commitment to undergraduate education through their innovative teaching methods, their ability to inspire intellectual curiosity, and their dedication to mentoring students both inside and outside the classroom," said Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Lee D. Baker. "They create learning environments to challenge our students to think critically, engage deeply, and grow both academically and personally."

Duke’s Office of Undergraduate Education enlisted student writers to interview professors Huettel, Rose, and Schott for insights into their teaching philosophies.

Lisa Huettel, Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School Professor of the Practice of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering
Interviewed by Rosie Morin, Pratt, Class of 2027

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When students walk into Professor Lisa Huettel’s classroom, she wants them to feel welcomed, curious, and ready to learn. With a deep intentionality, Huettel curates a learning environment by ensuring she has a genuine connection with each student by the time the semester ends. Huettel loves the process of getting to know her new students and notes, "Duke students are amazing, but they are all very different."

As her career has progressed, she has felt a growing responsibility to nurture others, an instinct influenced by the mentorship she received early in her life. Beyond her mentorship of students, Huettel now guides colleagues through brainstorming sessions and collaborative problem-solving, recognizing that effective teaching looks different for everyone.

To Huettel, the culture of collaboration is one of the most meaningful parts of being at Duke. “Mentoring is never one-directional,” states Huettel. “My colleagues continually inspire me and sharpen my thinking."

Pratt students taking their first engineering courses often struggle with the leap from high school to Duke. As a professor of a first-year electrical engineering course, Huettel knows the stakes are high. "Everyone is going to hit a wall at some point," she explains. "What used to work in high school isn't going to work anymore." 

Huettel views the student relationship as a partnership, guiding them on how to be successful both in and out of the classroom. To help them climb that wall, she acknowledges their effort and either helps them through office hours or points them toward resources like the Academic Resource Center.

Her teaching journey reflects a major shift from a technically driven approach to one grounded in educational research and relationship building. Without formal training in pedagogy, she learned through the lived experience of her students. "I’ve realized the importance of going beyond just the content," Huettel notes, a realization that led her to help redesign Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) labs and curricula. 

Huettel set out with the goal of making the ECE appealing to a broader audience. By focusing on interdisciplinary problem-solving, she and her colleagues reworked the ECE program with intention. "We wanted to have an aspect of teamwork,” noted Huettel, “while also having those individual student experiences."

Receiving the Judith Deckers Prize was a deeply meaningful "full circle" moment for Huettel. Because the nominations came from students, alums, and colleagues, it affirmed that her efforts to create supportive learning environments truly resonated with her community. Most importantly, it created opportunities to reconnect with former students who continue to share how her teaching shaped their professional paths.

Deondra Rose, Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy
Interviewed by Courtney Lucius, Trinity, Class of 2026

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Professor Deondra Rose stands in front of a packed Sanford School classroom for her Public Policy 301 course, Political Analysis for Public Policy Making. 

“They’re duking it out over policy,” said Rose, describing the importance of public debate for helping policymakers create policies that are viewed as legitimate.  “That was a pun.” The room laughed on (what seemed like) command. As Rose continues discussing the case study on her slides, she pauses on the slide explaining how a bill is passed. 

“This is the ‘I’m Just a Bill’ part!” Rose said, referencing the “Schoolhouse Rock!” television show. As class nears its end, Rose gives her students the space to talk about the positives and negatives of studying public policy. The classroom, temporarily turning from a roundtable policy discussion with her students into an open forum about their feelings on public policy field as a whole. 

“The more I get into the major, the more public policy feels like a competition, so that’s been pretty discouraging because that’s not what I thought I’d hear,” said one student into the microphone. As they spoke, Rose nodded her head, offering words of encouragement, ensuring her students that they’re on the right path by asking those questions and engaging with policy the way that they do. Her students, hanging on her every word, find solace in the comfort of her reassurances. 

Since starting her career at Duke in 2014 as an assistant professor of public policy, Professor Deondra Rose has served as the Director of Polis: Center for Politics from 2021-2024 and currently as Senior Advisor & Faculty Chair on the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging. 

“I remember during my interview coming to campus, and I felt at home. I felt like this was my place based on the questions that people were investigating in their research and the classes that the faculty here were teaching. I wanted to sit in on everything, I wanted to go to every talk, I wanted to be in every class,” recalled Rose. “It was thrilling to join the Sanford School in 2014, and in the years since, I’ve had an absolute ball. I’ve had the best time as a teacher, being able to develop and redevelop my courses as I’ve evolved as a scholar and a thinker.” 

Eleven years later, Rose develops courses that allow her students to make informed, real-world policy decisions. In her Public Policy 301 course, which she’s taught since she started at Duke, Rose’s work is motivated by the opportunity to teach and think very seriously about power dynamics, while encouraging her students to consider the impact of public policies and how they are designed.

“Every year, I have one guiding star principle. Of course, at this point, there have been a few principles that have driven my work,” states Rose. “But this year, I want my students to be able to draw on tools from the discipline of political science in order to become effective policy and problem solvers.”

In Rose’s classroom, she and her students learn from each other. “You’re only as good as your students,” theorized Rose, “and if they’re willing to show up, make mistakes, ask difficult questions, and see things in a different way then that’s what makes the classroom meaningful.”

Sarah Schott, Associate Professor of the Practice of Mathematics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Interviewed by Kit Shauf, Trinity, Class of 2027

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Professor Sarah Schott does not simply teach as a job; she’s driven by a passion for teaching. “I get this opportunity to learn so much about all these different students. I feel I learn a lot from them, and I learn about myself from talking to them,” shares Schott, a professor of mathematics and recent Judith Decker Prize recipient. “I get to meet students studying all kinds of different things, from all over the place, from just all these different backgrounds.”

To Schott, her students are more than names on a roster; she embraces everyone’s unique experiences and background when they enter her classroom. Schott has been part of the Duke Community for twenty years, entering as a graduate student before transitioning to a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics. “I never even thought about teaching,” Schott explained. 

As an undergraduate, she planned to be a math researcher, but when she taught as part of her graduate requirements, she discovered she enjoyed leading a classroom more than research.  “Students assume that I must have always known I wanted to study math, and that math was easy for me, both of which are not true,” notes Schott. “I almost picked English as my major. But I picked math, and then I had a really wonderful professor my first semester that was instrumental in me sticking with that major.” Now, Schott inspires other Duke students the same way she was inspired to study math as an undergraduate.

Since 2020, Schott has primarily taught Calculus II at Duke, which she describes as her favorite class to lead. Schott doesn’t only teach her pupils math, but also how to ask for help. “It’s known for being very difficult. Students often come into that class feeling a little scared, very intimidated,” reflects Schott. “It gives me that opportunity to see a lot of students have that aha moment where they pivot and think, ‘Oh, I can be good at calculus.’” 

Schott’s favorite part of being a professor is connecting with and staying connected to students. Schott advises other professors and future teachers, “Try to connect with the students. It’s so much more than just delivering the course materials. It’s really important to reach students where they’re coming from, and, as much as possible, try to consider the whole student.” 

2025-2026 Judith Deckers Prize Nominations

The Judith Deckers Prize welcomes faculty nominations from the Duke Community (faculty, staff, students, and alumni) from March 1-31, 2026. All faculty members currently employed at Duke, who have taught an undergraduate course within the last four semesters in any undergraduate school (Trinity, Pratt, Nicholas, or Sanford) are eligible regardless of rank, title, classification, or research background. The award will grant three faculty members a prestigious honor along with a monetary prize of $35,000 each.

To learn more about the Judith Deckers Prize and to submit a nomination, visit: https://undergrad.duke.edu/deckers-prize/.