The University of Minnesota has given Associate Professor Rebecca Wurtz its highest education honor —  membership in the Academy of Distinguished Teachers and the title of Distinguished University Teaching Professor. Wurtz received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education for her unstinting dedication to giving her students the most engaging, relevant, and challenging educational experience possible. 

The University will permanently display Wurtz’s photo and bio on the Twin Cities’ campus Scholars Walk.

“We are so very proud that the University honored Becky with this exceptional award,” says School of Public Health (SPH) Dean John Finnegan. “Our school, and the entire University, is extremely fortunate to have her raise the bar for what creative, skills-based, imaginative, and inspiring teaching can look like. Becky brings vast and varied real-world experience to her students and helps them discover how to continually find and bring meaning in what they do as public health practitioners.”

Wurtz directs the on-line, in-person, and executive PHAP (Public Health Adminstration & Policy) programs. She came to SPH in 2014 after a career as a practicing infectious disease physician, a former chief medical officer for several IT start-ups, and service in local and global public health agencies. Since then, she has reshaped several courses in the Division of Health Policy & Management with stellar results after consulting with and listening to student and advisory groups. 

Most recently, following the murder of George Floyd, Wurtz began a review of PHAP programs that resulted in adding a sixth competency (Students will acquire knowledge to identify organizational policies and practices that perpetuate racism and inequity and the skills to dismantle them); incorporating more antiracist content in core syllabi, and adding a scholarship for Indigenous students — the only program at the Twin Cities campus to have such a scholarship.

Wurtz is an advisor for all traditional PHAP students, the education lead for the division, and member of that school’s education policy committee (EPC). She worked with students to found the Public Health Review,  a student-written and edited public health journal. What drives all her service, mentoring, curriculum development, and teaching are her students.

“In order to win an award for teaching one has to have outstanding students and an opportunity to teach them,” she says. “I’m grateful to the School of Public Health for both.”