MDC Professors Awarded 2025 Endowed Teaching Chair Awards

Seven Miami Dade College professors, including three from Homestead Campus, were selected as 2025 Endowed Teaching Chairs.

The award is the College’s highest distinction. for teaching excellence. Winners will be recognized during an awards ceremony on Nov. 6. The location has not yet been disclosed.

The recipients are: Eduardo Araujo-Pradere, a physics professor at Homestead Campus who won the Ruth & Jack Kassewitz Endowed Teaching Chair; Wendy Goodwin, an English professor at Homestead Campus who won the Gordon Foster & Thelma Peters Endowed Teaching Chair; Shannon Kennedy, a psychology professor at Homestead Campus who won the Wells Fargo Bank Endowed Teaching Chair; Nayrie Smith, a business professor at Kendall Campus who won the Dr. German Munoz Endowed Teaching Chair; Sharon Plotkin, a criminal justice professor at North Campus who won the Sylvan E. Myers Endowed Teaching Chair; Diego Tibaquirá, a computer science professor at the Eduardo J. Padrón Campus who won the Rosenberg-McIntosh-Leigh Endowed Teaching Chair and Varun Ramberran, a business professor at West Campus who won the Spillis Candela & Partners, Inc. Endowed Teaching Chair. 

Winners were nominated based on their teaching excellence and dedication to student success. 

Recipients will receive an annual stipend of $7,500 for three years, funded by the MDC Foundation. The money helps to support the recipients teaching careers for things like research projects. 

Since the program’s inception in 1992, more than 300 professors have been recognized.