CCAD Award for Teaching Excellence

Each year, the Columbus College of Art & Design will recognize one outstanding faculty member for their excellence in teaching. This award celebrates the exemplary efforts our faculty members contribute to the college as a whole, utilizing the classroom setting to engage and enhance students experiences.

Columbus College of Art & Design is committed to the quality of education, the personal growth and the development of creativity and design of each student. Annually, the CCAD Award for Teaching Excellence honors one faculty member who meets the highest expectations of the college and rises as a leader among students, peers and alumni.

Criteria for Nomination: Faculty members eligible for the award are full time faculty and adjunct faculty with at least 6 semesters of service to the college. Nominations may be accepted from current students, faculty and alumni of CCAD. Deadline for nominations is March 15th of each academic year

An award winner is not eligible for a repeat award for three years after winning.

Nominations are now closed

Previous Winners

Charlotte Belland

Charlotte was born in Columbus… grew-up in Worthington and graduated from Thomas Worthington High School. She attended CCAD where she was voted the Outstanding Senior in Visual Communications at her graduation in 1997.

She received her MFA from The Ohio State University in 2000. While at OSU she was given the opportunity to teach traditional animation at The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design and was hooked on teaching.

After her graduation from OSU Charlotte worked as a freelance artist, and taught as adjunct faculty for CCAD (Computer Animation One on the old SGI machines)
She was also a volunteer for the Young Women and Technology Summer Mentoring Program at OSU

In 2001-02 Charlotte taught Graduate Courses at The Advanced Computing Center for the Art and Design at OSU. She says that while at OSU she snuck into the Motion Capture Lab and created human-sized digital puppets. This work was presented at SIGGRAPH Sketches Presentation in 2002

In 2002 Charlotte became full time faculty at CCAD. She says, “This is the greatest gig ever! I am proud to be working for my mentor, Ron Saks! And I am very proud of my students and their accomplishments!

Charlotte has consistently brought new and cutting edge technologies to her classes. Both in the content of the course and in its structure. She has used the web and blogs to enhance her teaching and communications with students. While at the same time the foundations of visual communications have never lost their importance in her teaching. This past year Charlotte took on the redesign with Julie Abijanac of the Design II & III curriculum to bring that course material into digital media. Charlotte has an enthusiasm, energy, and love teaching that are palpable. She goes the extra mile with her students while holding them to a tough standard. They in turn respect her knowledge and value the high standards she sets. She is truly an outstanding teacher.

Website: www.bellandpixel.com

George Felton

George Felton was educated at Duke University, DePauw University (BA in psychology), and The Ohio State University (MA in English). He taught writing at Ohio State and has taught it at CCAD for many years now. He’s published witty and insightful articles in many of America’s leading newspapers and magazines—The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal, to name a few. To our benefit he’s resisted offers to teach and work elsewhere! His copywriting has been recognized by Communication Arts, HOW, and Print magazines. He wrote the nationally used copywriting textbook Advertising: Concept and Copy, now in its 2nd edition from W. W. Norton. George, moreover, has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Greater Columbus Arts Council and a Columbus Literary Award from GCAC and Thurber House.

George practices what he teaches. As a freelance copywriter he does highly valued and sought after work for ad agencies and individual clients. He participates in a variety of professional organizations and meetings throughout each year and is well known, admired, and sought after by professionals in the ad industry.

In the classroom, he has delighted and instructed students who praise and admire his teaching in conversation with me and in their critiques of his classes. Alumni continually contact him, and often visit his office, seeking his professional opinion of their work, in some cases continually after taking his copywriting class. Students praise his insight, and his clever, casual, style in the classroom and in his office where he is always generous with his time and patient with his students, former students, and colleagues. His work in the classroom and profession is, simply put, exemplary.

In Liberal Arts we’ve valued, throughout his tenure at CCAD, the same incisive wit and thoughtful poise so admired and appreciated by students, alumni, and professionals alike.

Finally, he’s a good person, and talented professional, who most certainly deserves the CCAD Excellence in Teaching Award.

Ed Lathy

Dean of Liberal Arts