University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s Dr. Jane Haladay and Fayetteville State University's Dr. Sambit Bhattacharya are two area educators to receive the Board of Governors 2023 Award for Excellence in Teaching.

This award is presented to a tenured faculty member at each UNC System institution for excellent and exceptional undergraduate teaching over a sustained period. The award winners represent all 16 of North Carolina’s public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Recipients were nominated by special committees at each institution and selected by the Board of Governors Committee on Educational Planning, Policies, and Programs.

“It’s a real honor,” Haladay said in a press release. “I feel humbled and grateful. To have my teaching affirmed in such a significant way is very meaningful, and I appreciate it.” 

Haladay began her career as a high school English teacher in California. She started introducing American Indian literature in her courses after reading a novel by Indigenous author Leslie Marmon Silko. 

A native of San Gabriel, Calif., she earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a master’s in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona.  

She completed a Ph.D. in Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, before joining the faculty at UNCP. She has taken pride in the relationships she has fostered with her students. 

“What I value in teaching is having an exchange with students and not standing at the front of the classroom and teaching things I think they should know,” Haladay said in a press release. “I get excited with class discussions because I value the students’ perspectives and the knowledge they bring to the classroom.” 

Haladay doesn’t believe that teaching and learning stop at the classroom door. She fosters community engagement through service-learning opportunities and for the past nine years, her students have read books by Indigenous authors to third graders at Union Elementary School.  

“I feel it is important for my Native students and non-Native students who aren’t from here to make that connection with the Lumbee community,” she said in a press release. “I’m grateful for our relationship with the teachers at Union Elementary over the years.” 

Her service also extends beyond local, state and even national borders through her contribution to the Indigenous International Exchange Consortium, which connects UNCP with Indigenous universities in Australia and Canada. She has helped host international students at UNCP and traveled with UNCP students abroad.  

Sambit Bhattacharya, Ph.D is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science and director of FSU’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory. 

Bhattacharya has taught computer science at FSU since 2005. His research interests are in machine learning, computer vision and their applications in robotics and geospatial data analysis. He teaches in these same areas, including introductory programming and computer systems. His research and education program development efforts have been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Department of Defense. 

“FSU is proud to have faculty of the highest caliber in our classrooms and research labs,” said Monica T. Leach, Ed.D., provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, in a press release. “Dr. Bhattacharya is renowned in his field and dedicates his efforts to ensuring our students receive exemplary instruction, real-world experiences and valuable network and career opportunities. He is extremely deserving of this recognition.”

Bhattacharya collaborates with scientists at research laboratories of the U.S. Department of Defense and works with industry on applied research projects. In 2017 he served as Faculty in Residence at Google Inc., Mountain View, California.

Bhattacharya earned a Master of Science in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; a Master of Technology in computer science and data processing from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; and a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University at Buffalo. He also holds a Stanford Advanced Computer Security Certificate from the Stanford Center for Professional Development and a Deep Learning Institute Ambassadorship from NVIDIA.