The 2025 recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award, a prestigious achievement given to faculty, is Dr. Deirdre Fagan.
Yearly, Ferris State honors a faculty member for their dedication and excellence in teaching with the Distinguished Teacher award.
This award is presented to a tenured faculty member who teaches at least 75% of a full-time load and receives a reward of $2,500.
Once a faculty member is nominated, they must submit a portfolio to the committee, including information about their teaching philosophy, curriculum vitae and materials demonstrating their teaching philosophy.
After classroom observations occur, finalists are selected and they are interviewed by the committee. Finally, an award recipient is selected.
Fagan has been teaching for 28 years, with 10 of those years being at Ferris. She is the author of several books.
Many of Fagan’s other pieces have been featured in literary and scholarly journals, anthologies, encyclopedias, magazines and newspapers. All the while, she has also had her work featured on NPR, ABC and NBC.
Not only has Fagan become a well-known name in the publishing realm, but she has received many awards, including the 2023 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards Gold Medal Winner and the 17th Annual National Indie Excellence Award.
For Fagan, her students motivate her to continue to teach with such passion.
“My top achievements are my students. I am so proud of the work they do for me and beyond me,” Fagan said. “Success is when students retain and apply what they learn, not only in my classroom but in the various disciplines they study and in their lives.”
Throughout her time at Ferris, Fagan has taught hundreds of students.
Fagan expressed her enthusiasm for seeing her students use the tools she has worked so hard to equip them to succeed.
“When a student tells me a writing technique learned in my class was applied in another class with success, I know students are not only learning but applying what they have learned across the board,” Fagan said.
Many of the students who have had classes with Fagan have a lot of great things to say about her. Secondary English education junior Kenna McGough has been a student in Fagan’s poetry and world short fiction classes. McGough showed her appreciation for Fagan’s teaching style, reflecting on what she has enjoyed about these classes.
“Dr. Fagan always covers a wide variety of works across genre lines and finds a connection between most, if not all, material she teaches,” McGough said. “You always get to travel the world a little bit in her classes.”
Besides the knowledge and passion that Fagan instills in so many of her students, she gives them something that sticks with them for a lifetime: Care and encouragement in everything they do.
“Dr. Fagan genuinely cares about the ideas her students bring with them,” McGough said. “She is very kind-hearted, intelligent and a lifelong learner. She deserves the award, no questions asked.”
The Distinguished Teacher award is presented to a faculty member who demonstrates exceptional care for their students and passion for teaching, which Fagan’s students believe she excels at.
Administrative Assistant for the President’s Office Maggie Walcott has been in three of Fagan’s classes: Creative writing, poetry and advanced creative writing.
Walcott expressed her gratitude for the dedication and feedback Fagan gives to her students.
“The true gift she gives her writing students lies in the feedback she provides,” Walcott said. “The sheer quantity of time and energy that she puts into providing feedback to students continues to astonish me. Dr. Fagan wants every one of her students to reach their fullest writing potential.”
Besides having Fagan as a professor, Walcott has the privilege of knowing Fagan personally.
“She is one of the first people I run to when something is going on in my life and provides some of the best advice,” Walcott said. “Her life experiences have been vastly different from my own, and I appreciate both her candor in sharing those experiences and the insights that result from those experiences.”
According to her students, Fagan is a cherished member of the Ferris community, both for her dedication to excellence in teaching as well as her radiant personality and willingness to help out those in need.
“It is my belief that at the core of everything we all do is a desire to be seen and heard,” Fagan said. “This award makes me feel like the work I do in the classroom is not only valued by my students, but by the Ferris community.”
Among those who believe Fagan deserves the award are many students who have received instruction and guidance that they believe is exceptional.