Douglas Moellering, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences, is one of twelve faculty selected to receive the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, which honors those who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments in teaching. He is the program director for the department’s new undergraduate major in biobehavioral nutrition and Wellness and a course leader in multiple graduate programs.

“Students in his courses routinely comment on how engaged he is with their learning and the efforts he undertakes” to make complex concepts accessible, a nominator wrote. “This is not accidental, in that Dr. Moellering invests the time and effort” to help them succeed.

This investment is equally visible in online as well as on-ground courses, a nominator said. Moellering’s intense online graduate course in nutritional biochemistry is a case in point. “The content is difficult and very challenging, but without exception, the students rise to the challenge and learn a great deal in this course,” a nominator wrote. “Many of them will subsequently express their appreciation for the manner in which Dr. Moellering is able to engage them in learning, providing additional content when necessary to fill gaps in prior learning, and using project-based learning to reinforce challenging concepts by relating them to everyday nutrition needs.”

“Many of Doug’s students aspire to become registered dietitians or work in clinical settings,” another nominator wrote, so Moellering emphasizes projects with real-world applications. For one project, students must design a menu using only the $4.46 per day available to an individual on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “Many students … have commented how challenging and eye-opening this project is, and how thankful they are to have been able to participate,” the nominator wrote.