University of Rhode Island professor Cheryl Foster has been named the 2013 Rhode Island Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Foster, a professor of philosophy and associate director of the URI Honors Program, received the award Thursday at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The national awards program honors outstanding undergraduate instructors who "excel in teaching and positively influence the lives and careers of students,'' reads a statement released Friday by URI.
Foster, of Wakefield, joined URI's philosophy department in 1992, and previously taught at the University of Edinburgh and Open University, both in the United Kingdom.
"For me, teaching is building relationships through subject matter," Foster said in a statement. "It's opening students' eyes to the tools they need to live a good life."
Foster is the third URI professor to receive the Carnegie/CASE award. Roger LeBrun, professor of entomology, was selected in 2001, and Scott Molloy, professor at URI's Schmidt Labor Research Center, was selected in 2004.