USC Associates Faculty Awards

USC Associates has long focused on the support and acknowledgement of USC’s incredible faculty. This began in 1960, when the USC Associates presenting eight $1,000 checks to professors voted the best instructors by graduating seniors. Today, this support has evolved into three awards, each presented to two outstanding faculty members and totaling more than $21,000 annually.

  • The USC Associates Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship honors distinguished intellectual and artistic achievement that has resulted in a significant impact on a discipline, at the interface of disciplines, or in the creation of viable new areas of scholarly activity.
  • The USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes outstanding faculty members who have a proven track record as exceptional teachers with a positive, inspiring and long-lasting effect on students’ learning, along with extraordinary or pioneering contributions to excellence in teaching.
  • The USC Associates Award for Artistic Expression recognizes the achievements of outstanding faculty members whose artistic works have made a significant and lasting impact. Artistic expression includes work done in the visual arts (e.g., cinema, painting, sculpture), the performing arts (e.g., dance, theatre, musical performance), literature (e.g., poetry, fiction, playwriting) and architecture.

Congratulations to the 2023-2024
USC Associates Faculty Award Recipients

USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching

Antonio Elefano

Antonio Elefano
Professor (Teaching) of Writing 
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Jo Marie Reilly

Jo Marie Reilly
Professor of Clinical Family Medicine (Educational Scholar) 
Keck School of Medicine of USC

USC Associates Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship

Viktor Prasana

Viktor K. Prasanna
Charles Lee Powell Chair in Engineering,
Director, Center for Energy Informatics (CEI) 
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Computer Science 
USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Nomi Stolzenberg

Nomi Stolzenberg
Nathan and Lilly Shapell Chair in Law 
Co-Director, Center for Law, History and Culture
USC Gould School of Law

USC Associates Award for Artistic Expression

Patrice Rushen

Patrice Rushen
Associate Professor of Practice
USC Thornton School of Music

Robert Townsend

Robert Townsend
Professor of Cinematic Arts 
USC School of Cinematic Arts