Douglas Schuler, Associate Professor of Business and Public Policy, is the inaugural winner of the Teaching Award for Excellence in Inquiry-Based Learning. The award was presented at the University Awards Ceremony on April 24, 2018.
In Dr. Schuler’s spring 2018 course Social Entrepreneurship, Rice undergraduates in business, global health, and social sciences explored food insecurity in Houston neighborhoods. In addition to his own presentation of the material, Dr. Schuler engaged faculty and community collaborators to help students learn about the social problem from a series of speakers, readings, and field trips; and engage several methodologies to study the problem. With this background, students worked with an organization in the food desert space to analyze, critique, and offer improvements to particular interventions. His research with students on food insecurity in Houston led to a co-authored publication "Beyond the Backbone" in November 2017 with two students from the class on alternatives to backbone organizations to structure collaborative initiatives.
