Indiana University President Pamela S. Whitten presents the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching to Clark Barwick.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Clark Barwick, teaching professor of communications at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, recently received IU’s highest university-wide teaching award.
IU President Pamela Whitten presented Barwick with the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. He was one of eight IU faculty members from four campuses to be recognized for their teaching and service.
“I’ve taught at IU for more than two decades, and for me, this award represents all of the meaningful relationships I have developed with IU students over the years,” said Barwick, a native of Atlanta, whose mother also was an educator.
Clark Barwick
“I love helping students progress towards their academic and career goals, and nothing is more gratifying than witnessing their personal successes. I have been honored to work with so many amazing Kelley students, who invariably go on to impact the world,” he added.
In Communications, Professional and Computing Skills, a unit of the school that Barwick co-directs, he and his colleagues teach five pre-I-CORE Kelley courses – “Business Presentations,” “Business Writing,” and three Compass courses – to thousands of Kelley students each year. It is considered one of the top communication and professional skills programs in the country.
“We continually hear from employers how well-prepared our students are for success when they arrive for work at their internships and jobs,” Barwick said, adding that “this award also recognizes my teaching CPS community. I am continually inspired by their dedication, both to their students and to the craft of teaching. My colleagues will do anything to help their students succeed. Just ask our undergraduates.”
“Professor Barwick is a dedicated educator and thoughtful leader whose work has significantly enriched the experience of students at both the Kelley School of Business and the Hutton Honors College,” said Dan Li, executive associate dean for faculty and academic affairs and the L. Leslie Waters Chair in International Business at Kelley.
“Through his innovative teaching and considerate mentorship, he empowers students to develop the skills, confidence, and perspective they need to thrive in academic and professional settings,” she added.
Barwick has advised more than a dozen Kelley Honors capstone thesis projects and has served as faculty advisor for many Kelley student organizations. He is an academic fellow in Kelley’s Institute for Environmental and Social Sustainability and was a member of Kelley’s inaugural Equal Justice Initiative Leadership Collaborative. He is co-author of the book, “Strategic Business Writing,” published by IU Press in 2021.
Barwick, left with Dan Li, executive associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at the Kelley School.
Barwick’s impact felt beyond Kelley
Barwick’s impact on students goes beyond the Kelley School. He also serves as assistant dean for curriculum and teaching at the Hutton Honors College and he served as associate director for IU’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) for five years.
At the Hutton Honors College, Barwick helped design and launch Hutton’s Notation Gateway courses, “Education and Its Aims” and “Knowledge Production and the University,” which students typically take during their first year.
The Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching – or FACET as it is commonly known — is a university-wide organization comprised of IU’s most distinguished teachers. Barwick led all membership and programming initiatives on the Bloomington campus.
“In this role, I collaborated with faculty in nearly every school on campus, and I worked to foster and promote innovative teaching and teaching excellence,” he said. “Among my most rewarding FACET experiences, I served for two years on IU Bloomington’s Leadership Institute team. I worked with six other faculty members from a range of disciplines to analyze how we can make faculty more aware of IU’s available student resources.”
He said the Crimson Cupboard Food Pantry stands out as among the most high-impact and immediately beneficial resources for IU students that he and his colleagues encountered during their project.
Today, the Kelley School of Business is one of the most represented IU units in FACET. Since 1989, Kelley has had about two dozen faculty members inducted, including FACET’s current executive director Michael Morrone – also a teaching professor in Communications, Professional and Computing Skills – and Josh Perry, the school’s executive associate dean for graduate education and corporate relations and the Graf Family Professor of Business Law and Ethics.
“Kelley’s faculty are widely recognized as being among the most outstanding and committed instructors on our campus,” Barwick said. “We are active across IU’s pedagogy-focused activities, including participating in faculty learning communities and in programs such as the Mosaic and Digital Gardener initiatives, serving on the Center for Innovative Teaching Learning and FACET advisory boards, and offering teaching workshops for the IU community.
“Kelley faculty have been awarded significant teaching-related honors, grants, and fellowships across campus and externally. We are very visible in IU’s teaching community.”
Barwick’s research interests intersect with something that millions worldwide love drinking – coffee. In 2021, he was honored as one of the Sprudge 20, which annually celebrates global gamechangers in the coffee industry.
“For a long time, I have been interested in food systems and sustainability. Coffee is endlessly fascinating, and despite its ubiquitousness, most people actually know very little about this beverage, which typically moves through nine sets of ‘hands’ before it arrives in your daily cup,” he said. “I have really enjoyed introducing the global coffee trade to my students, and I believe that most students leave the course as more active and aware consumers.”
When asked what he orders when he goes to a coffee shop, Barwick said simply, “I love espresso.”
The President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching has been presented annually since it was established in 1974. Recipients of the award represent excellence in teaching across the university’s campuses, school, and departments with individuals from every campus having received the award over the years.
Barwick’s teaching and student mentoring have been recognized with the IU Trustees Teaching Award (twice), Alpha Kappa Psi’s Herman B Wells Award, the Association for the Study of Food and Society’s Pedagogy Award, the IU Center of Excellence for Women &Technology’s Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Award, and FACET’s Bender Fellowship.
He earned his doctorate from Indiana University Bloomington.