Two McMaster professors have been named outstanding teachers in a province-wide competition. Deborah Cook and Anna Moro join four other university instructors who will receive awards from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) awards committee.

Cook, a professor in the Departments of Medicine, Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, and co-chair of the CLARITY Research Group, was described in the OCUFA citation as an “extraordinarily gifted and dedicated teacher” with “a high degree of leadership locally, nationally and internationally.”

Michael Doucet, OCUFA's president, said the awards committee believed Cook's qualities made her “an exemplary teacher and most deserving of this award.”

Cook said she views the learning process as bi-directional, and she tries to create a learning environment that is open, constructive and engaging; one that stimulates personal and professional growth.

“This award really honours my past and present students, my mentors Gordon Guyatt and David Sackett, and my parents, who, to this day, still model life-long learning.”

In addition to her teaching roles, Cook is active in intensive care practice at St Joseph's Healthcare. She is academic chair of Critical Care Medicine at McMaster University and St. Joseph's Healthcare. She also holds a Canada Research Chair from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

Earlier this year she won the 2006 Distinguished Investigator Award from the American College of Critical Care Medicine.

Anna Moro, professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics, teaches a first-year introductory course to linguistics along with various levels of historical and social linguistics classes.

Moro says she tries to use several lecture styles and adapts her teaching methods depending on the number of students in her classes.

“A first-year class of 400 needs to be taught differently than an upper year class of 40. I try to find an example or a way a concept is relevant to engage students,” she says “I try to relate a concept even if it fairly abstract so that it is connected to their world.”

She admits her greatest challenge as a professor is making large classes interactive. “It is challenging to find ways to create a comfortable atmosphere in a large classroom.”

To that end, she varies her delivery style so that both auditory and visual learners benefit. Lectures are augmented with relevant videos to elaborate on a specific topic.

The OCUFA award citation describes her as a teacher “whose impact on her students is far-reaching and profound.” Moro was also a recipient of the President's Awards last year at McMaster for her teaching.

Both Cook and Moro will receive their awards on June 9 in the Renaissance Toronto Hotel Downtown.