In our “Office Hours” series, MacEwan’s 2025 Teaching Award recipients opened up their offices (and “un-offices”), sharing a bit about themselves and what makes them tick.
From student work to stellar snacks, see what these profs had to say about their spaces on (and off) campus – how they use them, what inspires them and what they hope students take away when they visit.
Robert Andruchow
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Design
2025 Teaching Leadership Award
“My philosophy is that I’m here to build a fantastic program for students, and to teach students, so I felt it was important that when students come into my office, they know it’s not about me – it’s about them and celebrating their work. I cherry-pick what I think is some great work and things I think students would like to see.”
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Kealey Dube
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
2025 Early Career Teaching Excellence Award
“There's something special about being able to connect over something that's shared. Whether it's a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate, being able to come, nourish your body and connect person-to-person is transformational.”
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Cody Esih
Sessional Instructor, Department of Decision Sciences
2025 Sessional Instructor Teaching Excellence Award
“Halfway through my degree, I started teaching as a lab assistant for statistics courses, and this is one of the main classes where we do that,” he explains. “Sometimes I just come hang in the lab if no one’s in it, because it's quiet and there’s no other instructors or students around. This classroom in particular is like home. I’m always comfortable here.”
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Dr. Lori Harper
Sessional Instructor, Department of Psychology
2025 Sessional Instructor Teaching Excellence Award
When she’s not teaching MacEwan psychology students or guiding them through their clinical placements, Dr. Harper is supervising University of Alberta and Edmonton Consortium psychology residents, performing neurocognitive assessments and conducting therapy at Covenant Health. “I feel quite blessed. It’s the best of everything,” she says.
Dr. Melissa Hills
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
2025 Teaching Leadership Award
“If students have a few extra minutes, I take that opportunity to get some feedback on my course design, especially if I’ve tried a new assessment or strategy."
Dr. Amanda Nelund
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
2025 Distinguished Teaching Award
“I was a first-generation university student, so it took my entire degree to learn unspoken norms – including office hours,” she says. “The first time I went, I ended up in tears, but the second time I went to a prof’s office hours, it changed my life and led me directly to this career.”
Christine Pope
Assistant Professor, Department of Child and Youth Care
2025 Distinguished Teaching Award
“I went to one instructor’s office hours to bring up some challenges I had in his seminar and he encouraged me to bring that forward to the whole class. I always share that story with students. It’s a skill to be able to talk about how you're being impacted or how others are impacting you.”
Colin Waugh
Sessional Instructor, Department of Design
2025 Sessional Instructor Teaching Excellence Award
“We don’t just walk out at the end of class,” he says. “There’s this buffer time where we’re all cleaning up, unloading drives and transferring data. It’s a great time for students to come up and connect one-on-one. In those moments, I try to push them to do something that matters to them in their projects, or to go after a genre or a type of production that they have a lot of sense for in their own lives.”