Ann Powers keeps upping her game to improve the learning experience and opportunities of students. A lecturer in the School of Natural Resources since 2023, she recently received a 2025 Early Career Faculty Award for her impact on the school mission of championing the natural world.
"I was surprised, to be sure," she said about receiving the award. "I was like, 'It's pretty cool. It's an honor. It's always nice to be recognized for work.' I feel like, as a person who's new in my position, I do get a little imposter syndrome every once in a while."
Powers came to the lecturer position on a nontraditional path, starting as an elementary school teacher and then working at the university for Landscape Services eight years and managing the Keim Hall courtyard and Backyard Farmer garden two years. After earning her master of applied science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, she began teaching arboriculture, the management of trees and other plants, and dendrology, tree identification. This year, for the first time, she designed and taught a new class, Introduction to Forest Management.
"I spent a ton of time on it, and it's still like, 'Oh, it's not up to my standards, but I'm going to keep working on it,'" she said.
Read the rest of Ann's story at https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1275