Coffee, a professor in the Department of Middle, Secondary and K-12 Education at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, was also named the winner of the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence in September.
UNC Charlotte Professor Heather Coffey ’98 has been selected to received the University of North Carolina Board of Governors 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award.
A professor in the Department of Middle, Secondary and K-12 Education at UNCC’s Cato College of Education, Coffey was recognized for her contributions in the classroom and her work as a mentor to countless students. The award was established in 1993 by the UNC Board of Governors to highlight the importance of teaching.
鈥淭he crux of my teaching philosophy requires that I create a classroom space where students feel that they are heard and respected and are able to share their honest opinions and questions without being judged or criticized,鈥 Coffey said in a UNCC announcement about the award. 鈥淪upporting the needs of pre-service and practicing teachers of diverse students has not only become my job, it has become my passion. I feel an immense sense of responsibility both to the teacher candidates with whom I work and to the P-12 students they will eventually teach.鈥
Coffey helped develop the interdisciplinary聽聽as well as the University鈥檚 plan to help undergraduate students thrive,聽. A former middle and high school educator, Coffey designed and directs the new model for the聽聽program and is the director of the UNC Charlotte Writing Project, part of the National Writing Project.
Coffey is among 17 outstanding faculty members to receive the 2021 UNC Board of Governors Awards for Excellence in Teaching. The recipients, who represent all 16 of North Carolina鈥檚 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, were nominated by special committees at each institution and selected by the Board of Governors Committee on Educational Planning, Policies and Programs.
A Teaching Fellow while at Elon, Coffey earned a master鈥檚 degree in education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a doctorate in education from the聽University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In September, Coffey was named the winner of the . Coffey was selected in 2018 as聽the recipient of the Bonnie E. Cone Early-Career Professorship of Teaching at the UNCC.