Ann Marie VanDerZanden, professor of horticulture, has received the 2010 Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science.

The Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Award recognizes an educator who has had a distinguished and outstanding undergraduate teaching career in horticultural science for 10 or more years.

VanDerZanden was recognized for her achievement at the 107th ASHS Annual Conference.

At Iowa State, VanDerZanden teaches classes that include principles of garden composition, beginning and advanced garden composition studios and landscape contracting and estimating.

This isn’t the first award for her passion of teaching. She has received outstanding teacher in the Department of Horticulture at Illinois State University and is on the Registry of Distinguished teachers at Oregon State University.

Her research interests include the method and practice of teaching horticulture, using new technology to enhance the learning experiences for students, nursery and landscape professionals and evaluation of landscape sustainability.

VanDerZanden serves as associate director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State.

She earned a doctorate in horticulture at Washington State University in 1994, a master’s degree in horticulture at Cornell University in 1990 and a bachelor’s degree from Washington State in 1988.