Emmanuel Odame, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Environmental Health Sciences, has been selected to receive the 2026 President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, which honors UAB faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments in teaching. The 2026 honorees represent each school, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors College, and the Graduate School.
Colleagues and students consistently praised Odame's dedication to teaching, mentorship, and student success. A sampling of nomination comments is provided below:
“His teaching philosophy centers on engaging students in activities that stimulate curiosity and urge them to ‘dive deeper’ into the subject,” a nominator wrote. “He has intentionally designed his courses to help students develop critical thinking skills through peer discussions, debates, case study analyses, and the creation of evidence-based public health communication materials such as infographics, public service announcements and fact sheets.”
“Emmanuel is very dedicated and passionate about teaching public health and environmental health courses,” another colleague wrote. “He invests a lot of time into preparing for his classes and demonstrates his enthusiasm for students to impart his own passion for public health. Teaching environmental health sciences to students from diverse backgrounds can be quite challenging, but he makes it engaging and exciting for his students.”
Odame also “mentors and works closely with his students who are interested in pursuing further education and/or career development opportunities,” the colleague added. “He trains and works with his teaching assistants, who are mostly his former students, and collaborates with students on writing abstracts and posters for presentations at local and national conferences.”
“What distinguishes his record, in my view, is the synthesis of teaching, mentorship and research activities,” another nominator wrote. “He does not treat these as separate domains but instead uses them together to create training and professional development opportunities for students.”