ISU horticulture professor Gail Nonnecke recently received the USDA Food and Agricultural Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award.

Nominees for this award are judged on their teaching philosophy, teaching quality, service to students and profession, and professional growth and development. Nonnecke was one of two recipients of this national award.

“I feel honored and very humbled by this,” Nonnecke said. “There are so many other great teachers and educators in the United States.”

David Acker, associate dean of global agricultural programs, was one of the people who nominated Nonnecke for the award.

“This award is the very top teaching award in the United States for professors of agriculture,” Acker said. “Dr. Nonnecke exemplifies excellence in teaching and her achievements deserve national recognition.”

Nonnecke was in Uganda, Africa, co-leading a service project to develop a garden for school-aged children when she learned that she had received this award.

“I was in absolute shock,” Nonnecke said. “Iowa State University has great faculty development, and I just felt really happy that Iowa State would be recognized.”

Nonnecke, a member of the horticulture department since 1980, was quick to direct credit for her success to her colleagues at Iowa State.

“Teaching values are stressed here at Iowa State, and I was able to just fall into place,” Nonnecke said.

Nonnecke believes her successful teaching philosophy is also a direct result of learning from the professors she had when she was a college student.

“I had professors who always supported and believed in me, and that’s kind of the philosophy I’ve had,” Nonnecke said.

Acker believes this influence has carried through into Nonnecke’s students as well.

“Dr. Nonnecke connects extraordinarily well with students by setting very challenging standards and clearly communicating that the teaching-learning enterprise involves personal responsibility for both professor and students,” Acker said.