Tim Samples, associate professor of legal studies in the Terry College of Business, is one of three University of Georgia faculty members to receive the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the university’s highest early career teaching honor.
“By recognizing early career faculty for exemplary instruction, the University of Georgia communicates the high value it places on creating outstanding learning experiences and outcomes for students,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I congratulate this year’s recipients of the Russell Awards and thank them for helping make this institution one of America’s leading public universities.”
The Russell Foundation established the Russell Awards during the 1991-1992 academic year to honor the late U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell. The award includes a $10,000 cash prize.
Samples’ impact on students reaches far beyond the classroom. He focuses on undergraduate research opportunities, developing partnerships with institutions abroad and fostering meaningful mentoring relationships with students through service and engagement with student-oriented organizations.
Samples redesigned his upper-division course in legal issues in international business to be multi-faceted and highly interactive. He also has taught a variety of courses in Argentina, Chile and Cuba. His use of experiential learning components in his classes has impacted students’ educational outcomes and career paths.
Samples was chosen to be a fellow of the UGA Teaching Academy and later was named a Lilly Teaching Fellow by the Center for Teaching and Learning at UGA. Among his awards and honors, he was one of 10 professors recognized in 2018 by the Student Government Association, and he has been honored as one of the college’s Outstanding Teaching Faculty.
He received the Core Fulbright U.S. Teaching Scholar grant to conduct research in Argentina and teach courses at the largest university in Buenos Aires. He has served as secretary, vice president and, most recently, as president of the International Section of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business.
In addition to Samples, faculty members Tessa Andrews, associate professor of genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and Jerry Shannon, an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Franklin College and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, were also honored with Russell Awards.
Nominations for the Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching are submitted by deans and considered by a committee of senior faculty members and undergraduate students. Tenure-track faculty members who have worked at UGA for at least three years