Professor Terri Provost awarded Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award

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Professor Terri Provost awarded Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award

Terri Provost receives the Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award during the 2022 Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony.

"...an excellent teacher, distinguished colleague, and truly respected and dare-I-say loved by her students."

Professor of Biology Terri Provost was awarded the coveted Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award at the university’s 2022 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony.

The Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award is bestowed annually at Utica University. Instituted in 1974 through a gift from a friend of the college, the Crisafulli award is considered Utica University’s finest tribute to a faculty member. The recipient is chosen through nominations made by faculty colleagues and through a rigorous review by past recipients of the honor along with this year’s valedictorians.

“Admittedly, when I saw the name of this year’s honoree, I did a double take, as I assumed surely they had already received this honor,” said Provost Todd Pfannestiel. “In my four years as Provost, I have known this person to be an excellent teacher, distinguished colleague, and truly respected and dare-I-say loved by her students.”

Pfannestiel remarked that upon finding Dr. Provost’s original resume, he saw then-Dean of the Faculty Mary Lee Seibert handwrote at the top of the first page of Provost: ‘Impressive! Mature, assertive. Knows what she wants – a UC type of faculty member.’

“To this I have now handwritten below it: ‘a caring, personable, professional, dedicated, teacher,'” Pfannestiel said. “From her instruction of easily over a thousand Utica students in both the classroom and labs, to her advocacy and leadership in general education and first-year student experiences, from a newly minted Bowling Green Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in 2001, to a valued Professor of Biology at Utica University, I am pleased and proud to present the 2022 Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award to Dr. Terri Provost.”