Best Professor Award – Selection Process

In the 2025-2 round of the X-Culture competition, 198 professors (including teaching assistants and assistant instructors) from 162 universities in 53 countries across six continents participated and were considered for the Best Professor Award.

Approximately 120 professors excelled in their roles. Their students were well-prepared, they offered consistent support throughout the project, diligently managed administrative tasks, and fulfilled all responsibilities—from evaluation duties to service on selection committees—with professionalism and care.

We owe these professors a BIG THANK YOU! Their universities should be proud to have such outstanding educators.

While many performed at a high level, a subset of professors stood out for going above and beyond, both in supporting their students’ success and in their broader contributions to X-Culture. These individuals deserve special recognition.

Each professor was evaluated and ranked using 124 performance indicators, capturing multiple dimensions of involvement and impact.

Key Evaluation Criteria:

1. Student Performance
The most heavily weighted metric was the overall performance of each professor’s students. This included peer-rated indicators such as effort, intellectual contribution, collegiality, and individual value added to the team. Since this award ultimately reflects a professor’s ability to prepare and support students, their class’s success was central to the selection process.

2. Class Diligence
Metrics such as timely submission of assignments, completion of weekly progress reports, and responsiveness were factored in heavily to assess student engagement and task management.

3. Report Quality
While the average quality of final reports were considered, these were weighted less due to the shared authorship model (teams included students from multiple universities).

4. Instructor-Specific Contributions
Additional factors included:

• Accuracy and timeliness of student rosters and contact lists

• Depth and reliability of the professor’s evaluations of final reports

• Participation in webinars, symposia, and training material development

5. Contextual Factors
We also accounted for class size and academic level. Leading a large undergraduate course presents different challenges than working with a smaller graduate seminar. This was factored into the overall rankings.

Final Selection

After ranking all participating professors across the 124 metrics, Top 40 professors emerged with consistently outstanding scores across nearly all dimensions.

These professors have been named Best Professor Award recipients for the 2025-2 semester.

Why We Don’t Rank the Top 40

The selected professors are listed alphabetically rather than by rank. There are two key reasons for this:

1. All recognized professors demonstrated exceptional performance.

2. Rankings can vary significantly depending on how different metrics are weighted.

It is also important to note that many other professors came very close to the top tier. In fact, at least 50 additional professors received outstanding evaluations and made major contributions. However, to spotlight a more focused group of the highest achievers, we recognize the following 50 professors as this semester’s award recipients.

 

 

2025-2 BEST X-CULTURE EDUCATORS (ALPHABETICALLY)

Abrahim Soleimani, Eastern Washington University, United States
Albachiara Boffelli, University of Bergamo, Italy
Amanda Budde-Sung, United States Air Force Academy, United States
Anna Codini, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Italy
Anne Oestreicher, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, United States
Antonis Klidas, Deree-The American College of Greece, Greece* (TOP overall)
Astrid Schmidt King, Loyola University Maryland, United States
B. Ariel Blair, Weber State University, United States
Charles Bryant, Florida Tech, United States
Dan Hsu, North Dakota State University, United States
Daniel Velez Diez, Eafit University, Colombia
Diana P Gomez, The University of Alabama, United States
Dirk Fischbach, Harz University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Edward Andres Tamayo Duque, Eafit University, Colombia
Eric David Cohen, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil
Felix Budde, Paderborn University, Germany
Heike Doering, Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Jeimmy Bernal, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Colombia
Julie Anne Lee, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Kaimook Numgaroonaroonroj, Assumption University of Thailand, Thailand
Kevalin Setthakorn, Thammasat Business School, Thailand
Lee Slater, Old Dominion University, United States
Louise Curran, TBS Education, France
Lynn Leng Khim Lim, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland
Michelle Green, Youngstown State University, United States
Mikayla Raines, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College , United States
Navjote Khara, Brock University, Canada
Paula Caligiuri, Northeastern University, United States
Pilar U. Tolentino, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Pooja Thakur-Wernz, Washington and Lee University, United States
Randika Eramudugoda, Trinity University, United States
Rian Drogendijk, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Robert Warmenhoven, Hogeschool Arnhem-Nijmegen, Netherlands
Saifon Singhatong, Mahidol University International College, Thailand
Sam Arts, KU Leuven, Belgium
Samuel Yaw Akomea, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Simona Gentile-Luedecke, Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Tomas Kincl, Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic
Tran Hong Hanh, Foreign Trade University, Vietnam
Uwana Evers, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Wendy Ritz, Florida State University , United States
Zsuzsanna Szeiner, J.Selye University, Slovakia