2025 Distinguished Teaching Award

Key Concepts

• Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA): An annual award at the GSB recognizing faculty members for their exceptional teaching impact on students.
• Core vs. Elective Courses: The DTA has two categories: one for excellence in teaching foundational "core" courses and another for specialized "elective" courses.
• Optimization and Simulation Modeling (OSM): A core course in the MBA program, often perceived as challenging, focusing on quantitative decision-making tools.
• Financial Restructuring: A specialized elective course dealing with the financial strategies for distressed or underperforming companies.
• Pedagogical Approach: The methods and philosophies employed by instructors to facilitate learning, emphasizing critical thinking, student engagement, and creating supportive learning environments.
• Student Nominations: The DTA process heavily relies on student nominations to identify and celebrate impactful faculty.
• Entrepreneurial Spirit: A core value at the GSB, extending to faculty who innovate in their teaching and career paths.

Distinguished Teaching Award Ceremony

This event celebrates the GSB faculty's commitment to teaching, with the Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA) being a significant student-led recognition. The award acknowledges faculty who not only impart knowledge but also inspire critical thinking, foster intellectual curiosity, and build meaningful relationships with students. The GSB emphasizes that while its faculty are leading scholars, their dedication to extraordinary teaching is equally vital.

Award Categories and Selection Process

As of the previous year, the DTA was expanded to include two categories:

1. Excellence in Teaching in the Core: For foundational courses.
2. Excellence in Teaching in Electives: For specialized courses.

The selection process involves an anonymous committee of MBA students who evaluate instructors based on:

• Excellence in in-class instruction: The quality of teaching within the classroom.
• Dedication to students outside of the classroom: The commitment to student support and development beyond formal lectures.

This year, approximately 90 nominations were received for 40 different instructors, highlighting the competitive and rigorous selection process.

Honoring Professor Daniela Saven (Core Course Awardee)

Professor Daniela Saven is recognized for her exceptional teaching in the core course, Optimization and Simulation Modeling (OSM). Despite OSM being perceived as a potentially intimidating subject involving complex concepts like queuing models, Little's Law, and batch size calculations, Professor Saven transformed it into a supportive and empowering learning experience.

Key Aspects of Professor Saven's Teaching:

• Balancing Expertise with Empathy: She combines deep subject matter expertise with warmth and empathy, creating a safe space for students to admit when they don't understand.
• Fostering Confidence: Professor Saven focuses on teaching confidence, not just content. She provides individual attention and encouragement, helping students believe in their ability to tackle difficult material.
• Promoting Belonging: She actively cultivates an inclusive learning environment where all students feel they can thrive, embodying the GSB's values of belonging.
• Going Above and Beyond: Her dedication is evident in her willingness to answer numerous Slack messages with kindness and her commitment to ensuring no student feels left behind.
• Impact on Students: One student shared a personal story of struggling in the course, feeling out of place, but being supported by Professor Saven to improve significantly and gain confidence. This highlights her ability to make students believe they belong at the GSB.

Professor Saven's Gratitude:

Professor Saven expressed gratitude to her OSM teaching team, including Professors Yu, Costas, Pikis, Dangu, and Funshu, for their collaborative efforts in revamping the course. She also thanked her teaching assistants (TAs), particularly those who volunteered after experiencing the course as MBA students, and her faculty assistant, Sharon Lugami, for ensuring the course's smooth operation. She also acknowledged her teaching mentor, Daryl Duffy, and the 824 MBA students she has taught in OSM since 2016.

Professor Saven's Perspective on Teaching OSM:

• Passion for the Subject: Her research aligns with OSM's topics, making her genuinely enthusiastic about teaching them.
• Belief in the Value of Quantitative Skills: She believes everyone should be exposed to these tools to complement decision-making beyond intuition.
• Value of Core Course Interaction: She appreciates the diverse student population in the core course, which offers a unique and unfiltered interaction compared to electives.
• Addressing the "Broccoli" Perception: Professor Saven acknowledges that OSM is sometimes seen as a difficult but necessary course ("the broccoli"). Her team works diligently to make it engaging and meet students at their level, aiming for an enjoyable rather than dreadful experience.
• Memorable Student Interactions: She remembers the diverse backgrounds and personal anecdotes of her students more than their grades, highlighting the human connection she builds. She recalled students from various countries, with unique hobbies, career paths, and even specific food preferences, demonstrating her deep engagement with each individual.

Honoring Professor Mike Harmon (Elective Course Awardee)

Professor Mike Harmon is recognized for his outstanding teaching in the elective course, Financial Restructuring. He has successfully transformed a technically challenging subject into a highly engaging and accessible class, earning accolades from students across the MBA program.

Key Aspects of Professor Harmon's Teaching:

• Making Complex Concepts Accessible: Professor Harmon excels at making intimidating financial concepts understandable, engaging, and even exciting for students, particularly those without a finance background.
• Leveraging Practical Experience: His extensive real-world experience in restructuring provides unparalleled insights, as he often shares personal involvement in the transactions discussed, offering a unique window into the industry.
• Exceptional Communication: He possesses a remarkable ability to communicate complex financial concepts with clarity and precision.
• Commitment to Student Success:
  • He temporarily relocates from Los Angeles to Palo Alto each quarter to teach the course.
  • He conducts one-on-one coffee chats with every student.
  • He provides supplementary materials (hidden sheets) for students new to finance.
  • He thoughtfully pairs teams for projects to ensure equitable opportunities for success.
• Creating an Inclusive Environment: His teaching fosters a classroom where all students, regardless of their prior finance knowledge, feel welcome and supported.
• Dynamic and Relevant Content: He incorporates diverse guest speakers, updates course content in response to real-time events, and sparks lively discussions that extend beyond the classroom.
• Authoring a Textbook: He has written a textbook that matches the high caliber of his course.
• Student Feedback: Students describe him as available, professional, competent, humble, and excellent, with a perfect five out of five review score, which is exceptionally rare.

Professor Harmon's Gratitude:

Professor Harmon expressed deep gratitude to his wife, Patrice, for her unwavering support and patience, especially during his annual relocation for teaching. He also thanked the GSB for providing him with the opportunity to teach, highlighting the school's entrepreneurial spirit. He specifically acknowledged:

• Daryl Duffy: For his initial support and encouragement when Professor Harmon pitched his idea for a financial restructuring course.
• Ahmed Su and Paul Oyer: For their openness to trying new ideas, with Paul Oyer's memorable quote, "We'll try any good idea once."
• Claudia Robos Garcia: His tenure-line faculty partner who helped launch the course and later transitioned from teaching to practice in the field.
• Peter Demarzo: For contributing to the opportunity to pursue his dream.
• Lillian Baxter: His faculty assistant, who also supports another DTA winner, Graham Weaver, underscoring her exceptional support.
• Michael Lou: His TA, for his phenomenal work.
• His Students: The primary reason he teaches, citing their energy, enthusiasm, engagement, and curiosity as his motivation.

Professor Harmon's Perspective on Teaching Financial Restructuring:

• Entrepreneurial Journey to Teaching: He transitioned from a 30-year career in private equity, advising distressed companies, to teaching. He actively sought a school that didn't yet offer a financial restructuring course, seeing an opportunity to build and teach it.
• The Value of "Broken Companies": He argues that teaching about "dead and dying" companies is relevant even in a school focused on growth and innovation, as it provides crucial lessons in resilience and strategic turnaround.
• The Power of Real-World Stories: He views himself as a "vessel" for delivering compelling, real-world stories from the financial distress and restructuring world, comparing them to the dramatic narratives of shows like "Succession."
• Career Restructuring: He draws an analogy between the tools companies use to improve their balance sheets and his own career restructuring, aiming to create value for others.

Conclusion

The Distinguished Teaching Award ceremony at the GSB celebrates the profound impact of exceptional educators. Professors Daniela Saven and Mike Harmon were honored for their distinct yet equally impactful approaches to teaching. Professor Saven was recognized for her empathetic and confidence-building instruction in a challenging core course, fostering a sense of belonging for all students. Professor Harmon was lauded for his ability to demystify complex financial concepts in an elective, leveraging his extensive practical experience and creating an unparalleled learning environment. Both awardees exemplify the GSB's commitment to not only academic rigor but also to nurturing student growth, critical thinking, and a supportive community. The ceremony underscores the student-driven nature of this award, highlighting the deep appreciation for faculty who go above and beyond to shape their students' educational journeys.