Teresa Balser

Biography

Dr. Teri Balser is currently Professor of Sustainability in the Faculty of Science (Biological Sciences) after having spent nearly15 years in senior and executive academic leadership. She has worked across multiple countries and roles, serving as Provost and Vice President (Academic) at the University of Calgary, Interim President and Provost & Vice-President Academic at Dalhousie University, Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida in the U.S., and professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  

A graduate of Dartmouth College in Biology and Earth Sciences, she received a Ph.D. in Soil Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University.

Her past work in soil and ecosystem ecology is well recognized: she has been honored as an NSF Early Career Award winner, has been made a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was a John Curtin Distinguished Professor. 

In addition, Professor Balser is recognized as a master teacher, and has received numerous accolades for her educational accomplishments, including a USDA National Excellence in College and University Teaching Award in 2009, and recognition in 2010 as the U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). She was also one of three finalists for the 2016 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, the largest teaching prize in the English-speaking world.

Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a collaborative and consultative leader and scholar – an advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion, and a change agent and leader in STEM. She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), an inaugural National Vision and Change Fellow for the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education. In 2018 she was named a Principal Fellow of the U.K. Higher Education Academy. She has long been an active advocate, speaker, and workshop facilitator in teaching, research, and leadership.