Rick Lambson Teaching Excellence Award
The Dr. Rick Lambson Teaching Excellence Award was established to recognize and honor consistent excellence in teaching. It shall be awarded at the annual COHS Awards Dinner in the spring semester of each academic year.
The ideal candidate for the award shall be:
- A faculty member who is recognized by both colleagues and students as a teacher of the highest caliber, passionately dedicated to the learning enterprise.
- A faculty member who is involved in creative teaching and learning activities outside the boundaries of traditional course work (e.g., research on teaching; presentations to other educators; P-16 partnerships; study abroad; service learning; integrative learning, etc).
- A faculty member who challenges students to achieve their fullest potential as learners.
- A faculty member who demonstrates excellence across all courses taught.
- A full-time COHS faculty member (tenured, tenure track, and non-tenure track)
- Completion of at least three consecutive academic years at Southern Utah University.
- Not a prior recipient of the award.
- The annual nomination process and nomination due date will be announced each Spring semester by the Dean of the College of Health Sciences (typically the month of March).
- Any College of Health Sciences full-time faculty member may nominate one eligible faculty colleague for the award (Note - department chairs are not eligible for the award, nor eligible to nominate for the award).
- Nominations should include the following material:
- A letter of nomination including a detailed rationale related to the award criteria.
- One letter of support from a current student of the nominee (from current academic year).
- Note: Self-nominations will not be accepted
- Only completed applications submitted by the posted deadline will be considered.
- The Dean will annually populate an ad-hoc selection committee consisting of COHS faculty members who were not nominated for the award to review applications and finalize the selection of an award recipient (Note - the committee may include a department chair(s) and/or the COHS student senator, if needed).
- The selection committee will submit a recommendation to the COHS Dean by the first Monday of April.
- The Dean of the College of Health Sciences will inform the recipient of the selection committee’s decision.
- The recipient will be honored at the annual COHS Awards Dinner each spring.
- Dr. Rick and Kat Lambson (primary donors) or other family member(s) will be invited to present the award to the recipient at the annual COHS Awards Dinner.
About the Donors : Rick and Kat Lambson
Rick met Kat in 1986 when he was finishing his doctorate at Brigham Young University. It was "love at first sight" and two years later they were married. They lived in Texas where Rick taught at West Texas A&M University for twelve years before moving back to Utah in 1999 with their children and being hired by Southern Utah University.
After living in the flat terrain of the Amarillo, Texas area, Cedar City was a welcome sight. It was the perfect setting and location with its red mountains, evergreens, and short jaunts to state and national parks and to Brian Head. The girls took skiing and snowboarding lessons at the nearby resort and Rick also sometimes found his way to Brian Head for some fun in the powder.
Prior to moving to Cedar, they bought a house half a block from the university and while living there, Rick renovated it to later rent to young men attending SUU. The Lambsons quickly made friends in their neighborhood, at church, at school, and at the university. Rick served as the PE Department Chair (now KOR) for many years. SUU was like an extended family that reached out to include Kat and the girls. They were often invited to office parties and to enjoy dinners up the canyon with the department at Rusty's.
Time at Southern Utah University and Cedar City holds a special place in their hearts where opportunities for growth were presented and relationships bloomed into life-long friendships. Nearly 25 years have passed, but it seems like only yesterday when Steve Lunt said, "You're hired."
Recipients
- 2025: Matt Schmidt, Nutrition
- 2024: Dr. Suzie Campbell, Nursing