Systems Engineering Professor Honored With Regional Award for Excellence in Teaching
Today@NPS
Systems Engineering Professor Honored With Regional Award for Excellence in Teaching
By Javier Chagoya
NPS Professor of Practice in the Department of Systems Engineering Donald Muehlbach Jr. is one of a select few teachers on the Monterey Peninsula to receive the 2015 Allen S. Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award recognizes Muehlbach’s above average motivation to teach and his willingness to volunteer within the local community.
A retired Navy captain, Muehlbach has been teaching in the department for six years, and has garnered numerous other teaching awards, most recently the Rear Admiral John Jay Schieffelin Award for Excellence in Teaching.
“I’m inspired and motivated by our military end-users that serve in harm’s way. Our students apply the knowledge, skills and abilities we teach in our systems engineering curriculum to military systems that are used on the tip of the spear,” said Muehlbach.
The Allen Griffin Teaching Awards were established in 1982 by a bequest from Colonel Allen Griffin, a founder and former president of the Community Foundation for Monterey County. By designating the Allen Griffin Fund within the foundation for teaching awards to outstanding teachers, Colonel Griffin intended both to reward and stimulate superior teaching.
Muehlbach’s best indicator of his sustained teaching excellence can be evidenced in his average score for “Overall, I would rate this instructor” on the end-of-course student opinion form. He has averaged a truly impressive 4.9 out of a possible 5.0 over the last six years, while garnering 12 Wayne E. Meyer Excellence in Systems Engineering Awards and a GSEAS Faculty Award for Extraordinary Merit in Teaching Excellence.
As a registered Yoga teacher, Muehlbach also volunteers his time with the Connected Warriors Program. In this role he teaches one free yoga class a week for PTSD veterans and their family.
Muehlbach maintains he is blessed to have the opportunity to teach the military men and women that come to his class every day. “Truly, all of us who work at NPS are serving their country,” he said.