Image: Anna Karls has been awarded the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship by the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences for her sustained commitment to high-quality instruction and the 2015 Public Service and Outreach Engaged Scholar Award for her contributions to advancing community engagement at UGA. Anna currently teaches undergraduate courses on Bacterial Pathogenesis and Advanced Microbial Techniques, and graduate courses in University Teaching and Approaches to Community Engagement, as well as mentors undergraduates and graduate students in research. She has been previously recognized for excellence in mentoring with the CURO Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award and Graduate School Outstanding Mentoring Award in Life and Physical Sciences. Since coming to UGA in 2000, Anna has been active in organizing and presenting science demonstrations both locally and nationally. She has worked closely with graduate students in the department for the science demonstrations which has provided valuable outreach experiences for these students. As a Public Service and Outreach Fellow in 2010 with the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, she created an interdisciplinary graduate service-learning course on approaches to community engagement. She was named a 2012-13 Service Learning Fellow and used this opportunity to organize Experience UGA biology field trips for all ninth-graders in the Clarke County School District. Anna developed a service-learning component for the undergraduate Pathogenic Microbiology course in which the class designs and implements a research venue on bacterial pathogenesis for the ninth-grade biology field trips, thereby reinforcing the course concepts, introducing her students to community engagement, and supporting the Experience UGA program.
