Winners will be recognized at the annual Andrea L. Rich Night to Honor Teaching during the fall 2026 quarter
UCLA Social Sciences
One Senate and two non-Senate Faculty members from UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences were named recipients of UCLA’s 2026 Distinguished Teaching Awards.
From a highly competitive pool of nominees, the awards celebrate teaching excellence and educational innovation, helping to elevate the practice of teaching as outlined in the UCLA for Life flagship initiative, part of Chancellor Julio Frenk’s One UCLA campaign, and the University’s Strategic Plan. The awards recognize deserving instructors for their creativity in the classroom, dedication to helping students thrive and commitment to continually enhancing the educational experience.
Senate and non-Senate Faculty awardees were nominated in one of four categories: Practice of Teaching, Innovation and Impact, Community-Engaged Teaching and Undergraduate Mentorship. The Eby Award recognizes an instructor who demonstrates an ongoing dedication and sustained commitment to teaching and improving student success at UCLA.
Below is a list of UCLA’s Division of Social Science faculty Distinguished Teaching Award winners and a brief description of the type of excellence they bring to the classroom and their mentorship. All award recipients will be recognized at the Andrea L. Rich Night to Honor Teaching, held during the fall 2026 quarter.
Senate Faculty Award Recipient
Brenda E. Stevenson, Distinguished Professor & Nickoll Family Endowed Chair in History and African American Studies
Distinguished Teaching Award in the Practice of Teaching Category & Eby Award for Teaching Excellence, which recognizes an instructor who demonstrates a long-term commitment and sustained impact on teaching excellence at UCLA was also awarded to Stevenson.
Brenda E. Stevenson is an internationally recognized scholar of race, slavery, gender, family and racial conflict, whose work examines the comparative, historical experiences of women, family and community across racial and ethnic lines.
Alongside her remarkable scholarly career, she has demonstrated a decades-long commitment to teaching and mentoring. In the classroom, she fosters an environment that is welcoming, encouraging and intellectually rigorous — creating a space that values students as diverse learners, thinkers, humans and future leaders. Her students describe her as an engaging, passionate instructor that inspires them to think critically and to produce their best not simply for the letter grade, but for the lasting value of what they will learn.
Over the course of her career, she has also mentored generations of students at UCLA. She has chaired 24 doctoral committees in UCLA’s history program and has served as thesis advisor for 20 students in UCLA’s African American Studies master’s program program. In addition, she has been a longtime instructor and advisor for the McNair Research Scholars Program; the Academic Advancement Program; and the Transfer Student Program; as well as the Minority Student Research Program; the Summer Research Program; and the Summer Humanities Institute that helps to prepare students at historically Black colleges to attend graduate school.
In 2014, she received the UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Award, an award that honors mid-career faculty who demonstrate extraordinary accomplishments in undergraduate teaching, research and university service.
Non-Senate Faculty Award Recipients
Steven Peterson, Sr. Continuing Lecturer, UCLA’s Department of Communication
Undergraduate Mentorship Award
Steven Peterson’s teaching and mentoring philosophy stems from a social-cognitive constructivist approach, in which students create their own knowledge with the support of a skilled facilitator.
A faculty member in UCLA’s Department of Communication for over 20 years, Peterson has applied this philosophy in mentoring undergraduate students, particularly those undertaking Departmental Honors research projects under his guidance. His students know that his mentorship comes with what he calls a “lifetime guarantee” meaning he continues to offer them academic and professional advice long after they have graduated.
The evidence of Peterson’s mentorship is evident in his students’ achievements. Many describe him as a highly significant figure in their college experience and credit him as a key factor in their success after graduation. Former students have landed jobs at nation’s top companies including Disney, Apple, YouTube and the NFL, among others. Other students now hold faculty positions at the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa, among other campuses. His students also regularly receive undergraduate research fellowships and scholarships.
For Peterson, however, the greatest measure of his mentorship’s impact is the intellectual growth, maturity, the superior quality of work, their collegiality, and most importantly, the quality of character his students demonstrate throughout their research journeys.
Learn more about Steven Peterson
Chris Surro, Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCLA’s Department of Economics
Undergraduate Mentorship Award
Chris Surro’s central teaching goal is to provide students with both economic knowledge and the ability to apply it in practical ways to their future careers.
A hallmark of Surro’s mentorship has been the building of a UCLA team to participate in the National College Fed Challenge, a national competition that invites undergraduate students to analyze the U.S. economy and develop a monetary policy recommendation which they defend before Federal Reserve economists in real time. When he arrived in 2020, the Department had never fielded a Fed Challenge team — there was no structure, no pipeline and no precedent. Despite this, he built a team from the ground up and transformed its absence into one of the strongest in the country, earning a divisional title during their very first outing.
In total, under Surro’s leadership, UCLA has won four division titles in five years and earned two third-place national finishes out of more than 130 institutions. In fall 2025, the team advanced to the final round in Washington, D.C., presenting in the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee boardroom itself and meeting Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr.
Across five teams, Surro has mentored 25 students and guided over 100 students through an accompanying course “Econ 162: Monetary Policy” and the Bruin Reserve Bank club he advises. Surro has helped develop students into poised analysts who have gone on to pursue internships at the Federal Reserve and graduate study in economics. Beyond the Fed Challenge, Surro has built an economics alumni network, hosts an annual alumni panel each spring and has created new professional development opportunities for students.
In addition to this mentoring success, Surro regularly teaches classes with enrollments of 300 to 400 students with extraordinary results. Students flock to his courses, and every offering is over-subscribed with full waiting lists. Students frequently comment that Surro was their best instructor at UCLA.
Surro is also a proud Bruin, having graduated with a Ph.D. in economics in 2020.
Media Contact: Citlalli Chávez-Nava, cchaveznava@college.ucla.edu.
For more information about the Distinguished Teaching Awards, visit the Distinguished Teaching Awards website.