Kira Cares!

Kira Schabram, an assistant professor of management at the Foster School, received the 2019 UW Distinguished Teaching Award. She is the 13th Foster faculty member to receive the UW’s highest teaching honor.

Schabram joined Foster in 2016 and made an immediate impression in the classroom. She earns rave reviews teaching Leadership and Organizational Behavior to Foster undergraduate students (she’s added MBAs this year as well).

Students describe her as “caring,” “inspirational,” “transformational.” Colleagues call her “energizing,” “committed to inclusion,” and a “superstar instructor.”

It might be because she views teaching as more than just the transfer of knowledge. “My philosophy is informed by my research on positive organizational scholarship, which is about human potential, virtue and thriving,” she says.

So, coursework is geared toward individual discovery, of uncovering powerful career matches. She focuses content on how it can be applied—in work and in life. And she makes a lecture course feel intimate, through mentorship and advocacy. She exposes students to different forms of work that might suit them, prepares them to critically analyze their career plans, and offers personal and customized insights and skills.

The added value does not go unnoticed. “Kira is the definition of what a transformational leader is and should be,” wrote Kyle Philley (BA 2019) and Madison Oraivei (BA 2019). “And her positive influence is one that we hope we can live up to one day when we are in our own professions.”