UT System selects Iya Price for Outstanding Teaching Award
The University of Texas System Board of Regents has selected Iya Price, assistant professor of instruction at The University of Texas at Arlington, for its Outstanding Teaching Award.
Price is one of 14 faculty members across all of the UT System’s academic and health institutions to receive the special honor, which recognizes educators who best exemplify excellence, innovation and a commitment to student success.
Price has been teaching Russian in UTA’s Department of Modern Languages since 2016. As a child growing up in Russia, Price said, she would pretend her toys were students and she was their teacher.
“For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “It has been my life’s dream.”
In 2008, the UT System Board of Regents established the annual Outstanding Teaching Awards to honor extraordinary classroom performance and innovation. The program is among the largest in the nation given for outstanding faculty performance, with each recipient receiving a certificate, a medallion and $25,000 in appreciation of their impact on students and their institutions. The Board of Regents has presented more than $20 million to more than 700 UT System educators since it was first established.
“Dr. Price is a deserving educator known for championing the success of her students,” UTA President Jennifer Cowley said. “We are fortunate to have such exceptional faculty at UTA, and Dr. Price embodies the high-quality education our students receive.”
Price, who earned her doctorate in linguistics from UT Arlington, specializes in Russian, Russian linguistics, second language acquisition and educational administration. She co-sponsors UTA student organization Russian Culture Society and creates internship opportunities for her current and former students.
“When students are speaking Russian after just a few semesters, it gives me a warm feeling,” Price said. “I do anything possible with my classes to orient them for careers that would involve the Russian language, whether they are interested in international affairs or Russian literature. It's one of my passions to engage my former students by inviting them, for example, to be guest speakers in my current classes.”
Price has more than 20 years of teaching experience and has received three federal National Security STARTALK grants and a federal grant from the U.S. Department of State. These grants are aimed at increasing the number of U.S. citizens learning, speaking and teaching critical-need foreign languages, such as Russian, Chinese and Arabic.
UTA’s Department of Modern Languages has a distinguished history of teaching excellence. The department’s previous winners of the Outstanding Teaching Award include Alicia Rueda-Acedo, associate professor of Spanish, in 2021, and Amy Austin, associate professor of instruction, in 2019.
“UTA’s Department of Modern Languages has an amazing history of teaching awards,” Price said. “We have this atmosphere where we support each other in the department. I feel like this is a celebration for all of us.”
Winners such as Price are chosen based on thorough evaluations that focus on the candidates’ classroom expertise, curriculum quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.
“The UT System Board of Regents is honored to recognize top educators annually for their extraordinary dedication to the students they are equipping to be our future leaders,” Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife said.
“Teaching excellence is at the core of our mission and helps ensure students with degrees from UT institutions are prepared to succeed in an ever-competitive and dynamic workforce,” Chancellor James B. Milliken said. “The UT presidents and I express profound gratitude to the Board of Regents for their continued support of honoring exceptional teachers.”