Below is the 15-minute acceptance speech I gave in Austin last week for the UTeach Award....
Acceptance Speech Delivered April 29, 2026
Thank you.
It is a real honor to receive the Mary Long Award for Dedication to UTeach. I am deeply grateful to be considered for an award that carries her name, and I accept it with a strong sense of humility and appreciation.
Awards like this are always complicated things. They are given to individuals, but they are built on the work of many people, over many years, often under conditions that are not always visible to others. That is certainly true of UTeach, and it is certainly true of anything I have been fortunate enough to be a part of within it.
So I want to begin by saying thank you—not only for the recognition, but for the opportunity to reflect on what this program has meant to me, and to so many others.
When I think back to the early days of UTeach, there is one image that stays with me.
There was a time when the entire UTeach team could sit around a single conference table for our weekly meetings.
That was it. No overflow rooms, no remote connections, no large administrative structures. Just a small group of people, sitting together, trying to figure out how to build something that we believed mattered.
It is almost difficult to reconcile that image with what UTeach has become. Today, the program has expanded far beyond those early meetings, influencing teacher preparation across dozens of universities and reaching classrooms across the country. But in those early days, none of that was guaranteed.
What we had was a shared belief that we could do something different. That we could address not only the shortage of qualified mathematics and science teachers, but also the quality of preparation those teachers received. That we could bring together deep disciplinary knowledge and serious attention to how students learn.
And we had a group of people who were willing to take that idea seriously.
There was uncertainty. There were institutional challenges. There were questions about whether this kind of work could be sustained in a research-intensive university environment. But there was also a sense of purpose that was hard to ignore.
And in many ways, that sense of purpose is what has carried UTeach forward.
At the center of that early work—and at the center of this award—is Mary Long.
Mary Long understood something that, at the time, not everyone fully appreciated.
She understood the expectations, the pressures, and the responsibilities that came with building a program like UTeach, particularly for those of us who were early in our academic careers.
At the College of Education, as a non-tenured faculty member, the demands were significant. We were expected to help grow UTeach, to teach undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses, and to conduct and publish research at a Tier 1 research university. Those are not small expectations individually, and they are certainly not small when taken together.
And there was an added layer of uncertainty.
In my department, no one in science education had received tenure in the previous twenty years. So these concerns were not abstract. They were real. They were part of the daily reality of trying to do meaningful work while also navigating the structures of the university.
Mary Long saw that.
She understood that there was a kind of invisible work happening—work that required commitment, risk, and persistence. And she made it a point to support the people doing that work.
For me personally, that support mattered a great deal.
She advised me. She spoke with me. She created space for honest conversation. And I always felt that I could confide in her. That is not something you take for granted in an academic environment.
Her guidance was critical during my time as an Assistant Professor, and it remained important as I transitioned into a tenured Associate Professor.
But what stands out most is not just the advice she gave. It is the way she gave it.
There was a steadiness to her. A clarity. She did not overstate things, and she did not minimize them either. She had a way of helping you see the situation as it was, while also helping you move forward.
That combination is rare.
And it is part of why her impact on UTeach—and on the people within it—has been so lasting.
When I think about my own contributions to UTeach, one area that I am particularly proud of is the development of the Project-Based Instruction course.
This course became one of the core experiences in the program, and for me, it represents something essential about what UTeach was trying to do.
There are many courses in teacher education that focus on theory. There are others that focus on curriculum design. And there are others still that focus on classroom practice.
What is less common is a course that intentionally brings all of those elements together in a coherent way.
Project-Based Instruction was designed to do that.
It integrates learning theory, curriculum design, and real-world application—not as separate components, but as interconnected parts of the same process. Students are not only learning about how people learn. They are designing instructional experiences. They are implementing those experiences. And they are reflecting on them in a structured way.
Importantly, this work extends beyond the classroom through the apprenticeship component. So the ideas are not left at the level of abstraction. They are tested, refined, and understood in the context of actual teaching.
To me, that is what makes the course meaningful.
It reflects a commitment to preparing teachers who can think deeply about their practice, who understand the relationship between theory and application, and who are equipped to navigate the complexities of real classrooms.
And in that sense, it reflects the broader goals of UTeach.
Of course, none of this work happens in isolation.
There are many people who have contributed to UTeach in ways that are both visible and invisible, and I would like to acknowledge a few of them.
First, Jill Marshall.
Jill embodies what I think of as the full ideal of UTeach. She brings impeccable content knowledge as a physicist, extraordinary skill in undergraduate teaching, and a level of leadership that has been essential to the program. At the same time, she is a genuinely caring and thoughtful person, and that combination has had a profound impact on students and colleagues alike.
Second, Larry Abraham.
Larry served as Co-Director for over a decade and played a critical role in supporting ideas and initiatives within UTeach. What I appreciated most about Larry was his ability to balance competing demands. As Department Chair and in other administrative roles, he had many responsibilities, but he always found ways to support the program and the people working within it.
Third, Gail Dickinson.
Gail was an early colleague and collaborator, particularly in the development of the Project-Based Instruction course. Her expertise and perspective helped shape the course in important ways, and her contributions to both the course and the broader program have been significant.
And finally, Michael Marder.
Michael has been, in many ways, “Mr. UTeach.” He has been deeply committed to the goal of improving teacher education, not only in Texas but across the country. His efforts to expand the program, to advocate for its principles, and to sustain its growth have been extraordinary.
But for me, what I value most is his friendship and his objectivity. In an environment that can sometimes be competitive and politically complex—at the university, state, and national levels—he has consistently been a supportive and thoughtful colleague.
There are many others who could be mentioned, and I regret that I cannot name everyone. But I hope it is clear that this work has always been collective.
As I look ahead, I think about the next generation of UTeach educators and leaders.
The challenges facing education are not getting simpler. If anything, they are becoming more complex. And in that context, the core idea that shaped UTeach remains as important as ever.
We need to continue to bring together deep content knowledge and a serious engagement with how people learn.
That means staying connected to developments in learning theory. It means being willing to adapt and refine our approaches. And it means maintaining a focus on the kinds of experiences that prepare teachers to think, to design, and to respond effectively in real classrooms.
But it also means holding onto something that has been present since those early meetings around the conference table.
A sense of purpose.
A belief that this work matters.
And a willingness to invest in it, even when the outcomes are not immediate or guaranteed.
If that can be sustained, then I think the future of UTeach will remain strong.
Let me close by returning to where I began.
This award carries the name of Mary Long, and that matters.
It matters because of what she represented. It matters because of how she supported people. And it matters because of the role she played in helping UTeach grow from a small group around a conference table into a program with national impact.
I am grateful for her example. I am grateful for the colleagues and students who have made this work meaningful. And I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of something that has had, and continues to have, a lasting impact.
Thank you.
