2003 Regents' Medal for Excellence in Teaching
Awarded by the Board of Regents, the teaching excellence medal pays tribute to faculty members for their extraordinary level of subject mastery and scholarship, teaching effectiveness and creativity and personal values beneficial to students.
Excellence in Teaching

Kathy Ferguson
Kathy Ferguson is a professor in the UH Manoa Women’s Studies Program and the Department of Political Science. Ferguson believes that teaching is a process, not a product, because it is ongoing, unpredictable, and, under the best of circumstances can contribute to a lifetime of lasting reflection.
The idea of "teacher as thinker" underlines Ferguson’s pedagogical moves and modes. She believes that the teaching/learning process flourishes best when she keeps a few basic guidelines in mind—start where the students are; expect a great deal, but in do-able steps; always take students’ concerns seriously and have a good time.
Her classes are best described as lecture/discussion with a series of ongoing conversations. Because people learn with their bodies as well as their minds, Ferguson looks for ways to include hands-on activities, such as field trips to a free school, a Native Hawaiian community project, a food co-op and a grassroots feminist organization. Ferguson began the Faculty Ambassadors Program in 1996 to take the excitement of university teaching and research into high school classrooms.