LBJ School students choose 1996 Texas Excellence Award winners

The two were honored on January 25 at a campus-wide ceremony held at the Lila B. Etter Alumni Center for all 1995-96 honorees; they were later recognized at an informal gathering held at the School in February.

Administered by the Ex-Students Association, the award is part of a program that promotes excellence in teaching by recognizing outstanding UT Austin teachers, teaching assistants, assistant instructors, and advisers. This year, Bunch was named the winner in the teaching category and Carey Noland was selected in the graduate assistant/assistant instructor category.

Beverly Bunch
Bunch, who has been with the LBJ School since January 1994, specializes in financial management and quantitative methodologies. Students who nominated her for the award described her as someone who "knows and loves what she teaches" and as a "hard teacher who forces you to think critically."

During the award presentation held at the LBJ School, several students praised her teaching style. One student said that "her enthusiasm spreads to the entire class" and that "her love of public accounting always shows, and it's contagious." Another person stated that Bunch allows her students to "have fun and enjoy the experience of learning."

Before joining the LBJ School faculty, Bunch was a financial analyst and Assistant to the Executive Director of the Texas Bond Review Board. She has also been an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the American University and at Syracuse University. Bunch has a Ph.D. in public policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University.

Carey Noland
Noland, a second-year student who was a teaching assistant in political economy last fall and is now assisting with applied statistics, was praised by students for her knowledge in economics and her "ability to explain difficult concepts so that people can understand them." She was described as "diligent, hard working, and attentive to students."

Last summer, Noland worked as a municipal budget consultant in Mendoza, Argentina. Before that, she served a three-month internship in the Texas Governor's Policy Office. As part of her work she participated in the rewriting of the Texas Education Code and served as a liaison to the Legislature.

Noland has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with a minor in statistics from Boston University School of Liberal Arts.

TETA Committee
The 1995-96 LBJ School Texas Excellence selection committee was headed by second-year student Stephanie Upp and first-year student Tracey Munza.