Posted 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Kevin Zabel receives 2026 Eagle Teaching Excellence Award
At UW-La Crosse, outstanding instructors shape students’ lives inside and outside the classroom.
This year, UWL’s Provost Office received nearly 500 nominations from students hoping to recognize faculty who have had a meaningful impact on their college experience. From these nominations, a university committee selected six faculty to receive 2026 Eagle Teaching Excellence Awards.
They are:
- Aaron Koepke, Marketing
- Dipankar Mitra, Computer Science & Computer Engineering
- Jarred Pfeiffer, Art
- Denise Rueter, Educational Studies
- Shauna Sallmen, Physics
- Kevin Zabel, Psychology
This is the sixth and final story highlighting the award recipients.
Kevin Zabel, Psychology
Started at UWL: 2019
Courses: I am in the Psychology Department and regularly teach courses such as Social Psychology, Research Methods and Prejudice & Stigma.
Background: Prior to starting at UWL, I served as an assistant professor of psychology at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts (2015-19). During graduate school, I taught several courses at the University of Tennessee (2010-15). Before starting graduate school, I was a programming and course assistant for the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture, an experiential learning, non-profit educational program focused on first-voice pedagogy (2009-10).
Favorite part of teaching: I appreciate the opportunity to work with students in the pursuit of fostering curiosity for course-related concepts and how they apply to their own lives. Students demonstrating their curiosity through the questions and comments they provide during class discussion is particularly rewarding. Another favorite aspect of teaching is mentoring students in research and helping them synthesize and construct how their research endeavors translate to skill development relevant to future career aspirations and personal development.