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 2021-2022
USC Associates Faculty Award Recipients

USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching

Mark Redekopp
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science Practice
USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Liana Stepanyan
Associate Professor of Teaching
Coordinator of Spanish III
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

USC Associates Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship

Anna Krylov
Professor of Chemistry
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Gerard J. Tellis
Jerry and Nancy Neely Chair in American Enterprise
Director of the Institute for Outlier Research in Business
Professor of Marketing
USC Marshall School of Business

USC Associates Award for Artistic Expression

Michael Patterson
Professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts
USC School of Cinematic Arts

Candace Reckinger
Associate Professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts
Director of the Jaunt Cinematic VR Lab
USC School of Cinematic Arts

Sibyl Wickersheimer
Associate Professor of Scenic Design
USC School of Dramatic Arts