2026 Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Awards
The UCSF Academic Senate is happy to announce the faculty selected by their peers as the 2026 Distinction in Teaching and Distinction in Mentoring Award winners. An event to recognize their efforts will be held on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, from 3:00 pm. to 5:00 p.m. on Mission Bay Campus in the William and Ruth Hoffman Auditorium in the Wayne and Glady’s Valley Center for Vision (490 Illinois St.) and will also be broadcasted on Zoom. We hope to see you there in person, but if you are unable to be there in person, the Zoom link is provided below.
Date/Time: Friday, April 15, 2026 at 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: Mission Bay Campus in the William and Ruth Hoffman Auditorium in the Wayne and Glady’s Valley Center for Vision (490 Illinois St.)
Zoom: https://tiny.ucsf.edu/dfa2026 • Password: 950081
UCSF Events Calendar:
The Spring 2026 Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award for faculty at UCSF for five years or fewer goes to Joanne Chun, PharmD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences in the School of Pharmacy. She is the founding architect and director of the MS in Artificial Intelligence and Computational Drug Discovery and Development (AICD3) program, an innovative graduate program that integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning, pharmacokinetics, and translational pharmacology to prepare the next generation of scientists for modern drug discovery and development. Dr. Chun teaches across multiple UCSF programs—including the PharmD, PhD, and master’s curricula—where she develops interdisciplinary courses that connect emerging technologies with real-world biomedical applications and advance their integration into biomedical education.
The Spring 2026 recipient of the Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award for faculty at UCSF with over five years of service is Michele Long, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and a board-certified pediatric hospitalist. She was director of UCSF Education in Pediatrics Across the Continuum (EPAC) and co-founder of the national Advancing Pediatric Educator eXcellence (APEX) program. She currently serves as co-director of career advising for pediatric medical students, and she developed and implemented the Pediatric Specialized Training and Advancement to Residency Track (PedsSTART) program.
The Spring 2026 recipient of the Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award for faculty at the rank of Associate Professor is Jason Nagata, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and affiliated faculty with the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Institute for Global Health Sciences. He was co-founder of the International Association for Adolescent Health Young Professionals Network, which provided mentoring in adolescent health for early-career professionals around the globe. Dr. Nagata established the largest research group within UCSF’s Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and is widely recognized within the division for his commitment to research mentorship and faculty development.
The Spring 2026 recipient of the Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award for faculty at the rank of Full Professor is Mallory Johnson, PhD, MA, Professor of Medicine and Nursing and a licensed clinical health psychologist. Dr. Johnson has served as a mentor for dozens of faculty and trainees in the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, and the School of Pharmacy and within several T32 and R25 training programs. Dr. Johnson serves as the Director of The Center for AIDS Prevention (CAPS) and as Co-Director of the Visiting Professors Program. Dr. Johnson also serves as the Co-Director of the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) at UCSF and directs the mentoring program within the CFAR Network of Integrated Clinical Systems. He co-launched the first "Mentoring the Mentors" national workshop series with annual workshops at UCSF and has published on the topic of mentoring best practices and mentor training.
To select each year’s awards, the Academic Senate Committee on Academic Personnel designates selection committees comprised of faculty and student representatives from all four schools. Student representatives are recommended by the Associate Deans in Student Affairs from each of the respective Schools. Faculty representatives are recommended by the Associate Deans of Academic Affairs from each School.