UNC Asheville Award for Most Distinguished Teacher

Established in 1982, the UNC Asheville Distinguished Teacher Award recognizes its most outstanding teacher for the academic year. The award is based upon recommendations from students, faculty, alumni, and the UNC Asheville community. It is the oldest and one of the most coveted awards that UNC Asheville presents to its faculty. The award is announced during the annual commencement exercises in May of each year. Since The Distinguished Teacher Award was established, two Department of Management & Accountancy faculty members, Claudel Brooks McKenzie and Robert DeWitt Yearout, have been so honored.

 "He has the ability to take a complex subject and make it easy to learn," and "takes our learning to a higher level."

-Former Students

As a teacher of management, Robert DeWitt Yearout is described as one tough demanding professor. His courses have been acclaimed to be the most challenging and difficult throughout his students' undergraduate and graduate studies. It is clear by their comments that he sets high expectations and drives then hard to meet those expectations. What makes his teaching special, however, is that he combines rigorous expectations with supreme teaching skill and a genuine concern for students. As former students and colleagues observe he is; "genuinely concerned for students and very willing to help everyone understand", "open and fair", "the most genuine professor I've had at UNC Asheville", etc. Not only does Professor Yearout demonstrate those qualities of a superb teacher but also he mentors undergraduate research students and has worked to improve the lives of UNC Asheville's student athletes. A member of the UNC Asheville faculty since 1987, Professor Yearout graduated from Virginia Military Institute and holds MS degrees from Southern California and Kansas State Universities. He also holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Kansas State University.

"It is rare to find her in her office unencumbered by a phone call, a student, or a faculty member, yet she always makes time for anyone waiting" -a former student

As a teacher of accounting, Claudel Brooks McKenzie conveys material known for its difficulty and lack of human drama. Yet her students insist that Professor McKenzie has a gift for making a dry subject relevant and interesting. A sought-after mentor and advisor, Professor McKenzie's teaching reflects her belief that "technical competence is useless unless it can be integrated with knowledge from other disciplines, communicated to the technically unsophisticated, and applied to the world [students] will enter and effect". As a colleague observes, "She is committed not merely to helping students master what she teaches. She works to help them see the ethical dimensions of their future work as accountants, and to connect the technical problems they work on with their context in the world". Under her tutelage, UNC Asheville students regularly post top scores on the state CPA licensure exam. As a tangible reflection of their affection, students in 1989 established the Claudel Brooks McKenzie Honorary Scholarship Fund. A member of the UNC Asheville faculty since 1980, Professor McKenzie graduated from Mars Hill College and holds an MBA from Western Carolina University.