June Francis and Adam Mills awarded 2014 TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching honours

Beedie School of Business teachers June Francis and Adam Mills have been awarded the 2014 TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Award – the highest teaching honour offered by the Beedie School of Business.

The TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Awards are presented each year to the two teachers at the Beedie School of Business who make engagement, organization, discipline, enthusiasm and support key components of their teaching.

Francis, associate professor of marketing, joined the Beedie School of Business in 2001, where she teaches marketing in the EMBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership, and international marketing in the undergraduate program, in addition to supervising masters and PhD students.

A former player with the Jamaican netball squad, Francis is currently a member of Simon Fraser University’s Board of Governors and recently completed nine years on the SFU Senate. She formerly sat on the board of MOSAIC, a key immigrant and refugee settlement society, and currently assists them with their marketing and fundraising efforts.

“It is an honour to win this award, which places me alongside a long list of great teachers at the Beedie School,” says Francis. “Winning this award is fantastic, but contributing to students’ lives through teaching is even more rewarding.”

Fourth year doctoral candidate Mills has been teaching marketing and strategy courses at the Beedie School of Business since 2011. Prior to joining Beedie, he held teaching posts at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Northern British Columbia, and Oklahoma State University.

“It is very humbling to win this award,” says Mills. “To me, it serves as validation of the learner-centric experiential approach to business education. I am very fortunate to have some great mentors at the School, many of whom are past winners of this award.”

Since 1990, Beedie School of Business students, faculty and alumni have nominated teachers from both undergraduate and postgraduate programs for this prestigious award based upon excellence and distinction in teaching.

Nominations are scrutinized by the Teaching Effectiveness Committee, which selects the award recipients based on the nominations and testimonials from a sample of the nominee’s former students.

In total, 37 different teachers at the Beedie School of Business have won the TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Award. Winners of the award are subsequently asked to assist the Teaching Effectiveness Committee in choosing the award winners for the following year.

Previous winners of the award include current Beedie School of Business Dean Daniel Shapiro, incoming Dean Blaize Horner Reich, Anne MacDonald, Leyland Pitt, Ian McCarthy, Peter Tingling, Andrew Gemino, and three-time award winner Mark Wexler.

Read about Francis and Mills’ reactions to winning the TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Award at the new Teaching@Beedie blog.