Dr. Divya McMillin honored with Distinguished Teaching Award

Nov. 7, Dr. Divya McMillin was honored for her career and development at UW Tacoma with the 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award. From 3–5 p.m. in GWP 320, a group of approximately 35 faculty, staff, students and community members joined to celebrate Dr. McMillin.

McMillin has been a professor at UWT since 1998 when she joined the Arts, Media and Culture concentration. She was the founding faculty of the Communication program and now teaches courses on media criticism, globalization in the communication program and research methods courses for the Global Honors Program.

“Within my first year, campus leadership approached me with the prospect of starting a concentration in Communication, because of the high student need. My vision was broad and deep, I saw it as a terrific opportunity, to create an innovative and interdisciplinary concentration with capacity to quickly grow into a major,” McMillin said. “This is what it is now, one of the highest enrolled, built through deep collaborations across the South Sound community and with colleagues in the UW Seattle Department of Communication.”

The Communication program is made up of two tracks — research and professional — which are based off of the background of McMillin’s career and knowledge prior to UWT.

“With my own background in international communication and cultural studies, and my experience as a broadcast and print journalist, I created Research and Professional Tracks, both situated within a critical framework,” McMillin said.

McMillin has been an asset to UWT, starting not only the Communication program, but also began directing the Global Honors program in 2009, created the Global Engagement minor in 2013 and the Institute for Global Engagement.

McMillin is the third faculty member at UWT to receive both the Distinguished Research Award — which she received back in 2012 — and the Distinguished Teaching Award.

“I am delighted and humbled. UW Tacoma is filled with outstanding faculty. Every day I have exciting conversations with colleagues who are finding new ways to invigorate the classroom,” McMillin said. “My community engaged model of teaching where classroom learning is deeply integrated with the experiential, has brought its own rewards to me. So to be recognized for something that I have great fun working within, every day, is such a kick.”

The event on Nov. 7 gave McMillin a floor to present her work, for those in attendance to ask questions about said work, have topical discussion and to honor her and her work.

Dr. McMillin will now chair the 2018 Distinguished Teaching Award committee. Nominations can be made at www.tacoma.uw.edu/chancellor/ how-nominate-0. Nominations close at 5 p.m. on Jan. 17, 2018.