Charee Thompson and Gabriela Tscholl have earned Campus Awards for Excellence in Instruction. The awards, presented by the Office of the Provost, are given to faculty members, staff, graduate teaching assistants, and advisors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for excellence in teaching, mentoring, and advising.

Charee Thompson, a professor of communication, is training future generations of health professionals to critically evaluate and disseminate messages about health. She is an expert in health communication, studying how family members and physicians talk about invisible health conditions such as chronic pain, mental illness, and weight management issues. She provides a welcoming, stimulating environment in her classes and creates ways for students to grow beyond the classroom. She regularly supervises independent studies to involve undergraduates in her research. 

Gabriela Tscholl, a teaching assistant in the Department of Communication, is a gifted instructor and an outstanding member of her department’s pedagogical community. She is a versatile, experienced teacher of some of the most challenging courses in her department and is a quintessential one-on-one relationship builder. Her teaching is grounded in clear communication with students and thoughtful listening. She works to cultivate fellow student instructors’ connections with her students in the classroom and in one-on-one feedback settings.

Thompson and Tscholl will be honored at a ceremony. 

Editor's note: A version of this story was originally published by the Illinois News Bureau. For the full list of award recipients, visit the News Bureau website.