2025 Great Teacher Award winners honored

Learn more about the 2025 Great Teachers: 

Sahar Alameh 

Sahar Alameh is an assistant professor of STEM education in the College of Education. She began her career as a high school science teacher. Her experiences in the classroom, having witnessed firsthand the difficulties teachers face when teaching science for understanding, laid the foundation for her research. After earning her bachelor’s degree from the Lebanese University and a teaching diploma and master’s degree from the American University in Beirut, she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. Her research encompasses two areas: supporting teachers and students in the construction and evaluation of scientific explanations within K-12 science classrooms, and developing informed views of science and its nature, particularly within the context of socio-scientific issues. She is part of a UK research team developing curricula to help students better understand diseases, pandemics and viruses using wastewater through wastewater surveillance.  

Malgorzata “Gosia” Chwatko 

Gosia Chwatko is an assistant professor in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and her master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin. Before coming to the University of Kentucky in 2021, she was a post-doctoral fellow in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Texas, Austin. Her research lab focuses on understanding and developing sustainable separation processes and polymeric materials considering cradle-to-grave design. In 2024, she was named Research Faculty Mentor of the Month (June) for mentoring three undergraduate students, five graduate students and a high school student. She is involved with the Materials and Chemical Engineering Students Association. She serves on the departmental Graduate Studies Committee and safety committees. She has served as a science coach for the American Chemical Society at schools in Kentucky and Ohio.  

Isabel Escobar 

Isabel Escobar is the Paul W. Chellgren Endowed Chair and a professor of chemical and materials engineering in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. She is the national governing board past chair of the Association for Women in Science, associate director of the University of Kentucky’s Center of Membrane Sciences and director of the Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence. She has more than 20 years of experience in water treatment using membrane separations and she has taught an array of chemical and environmental engineering courses. Her research focuses on developing and/or improving polymeric membrane materials for water treatment and water reuse operations, and fabricating and scaling tailor-made green membranes for difficult separations. She earned her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Central Florida. She was part of an innovative research collaboration that created a 3-D printed membrane-filtered face mask that could inactivate the coronavirus. She is associate editor of Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy Journal. 

Channon K. Horn 

Channon K. Horn is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Special Education and Counselor Education at the University of Kentucky. She is the director of graduate studies for the Department of Early Childhood Special Education and Counselor Education and the program faculty chair for Special Education. Her professional career has focused on advocating appropriate educational opportunities for students with disabilities. She has experience in the field of special education as it relates to those with moderate to severe disabilities and those with learning and behavioral disorders. She earned her bachelor’s degree, her master’s degree and her Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include strategies to actively engage all learners in inclusive environments, the use of evidence-based instructional strategies and the implementation of technology to positively impact learners with exceptionalities. She has served as a coach with the Special Olympics of the Bluegrass. 

Matthew Kim 

Matthew Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. He leads the Developing Minds Lab where his research, funded by the National Science Foundation, examines the nature and development of motivation and self-regulation skills in K-12 and postsecondary students. Kim earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and his bachelor’s from New York University. He joined the UK faculty in 2020 after serving as a research scientist at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and as a teaching associate in the College of Education at the University of Washington. He was nominated for a UK Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award in 2022 and 2023. He serves on the editorial board of Developmental Psychology.  

Douglas Klein 

Douglas Klein is a First-Year Engineering (FYE) senior lecturer and director of the Innovation Center at the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. He earned his master’s degree at Eastern Kentucky University in 2012 and his bachelor’s degree at Morehead State University in 2006. He joined UK in 2014, and he teaches courses including engineering exploration, which introduces students to the innovation, design and problem-solving involved in engineering and computer science. He is director of the Pigman College of Engineering’s Innovation Center, a makerspace that offers tools to help students bring their designs to life for class assignments, team competitions and their businesses. Klein won University of Kentucky’s 2022-23 Outstanding Teaching Award. He directs the Transition to Engineering Program (T2E) with Kentucky high schools. T2E takes the FYE program and applies it at the high school level.