Kramer Wins Project Management Institute’s Teaching Excellence Award

Professor Scott Kramer of Auburn’s McWhorter School of Building Science was named the winner of Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Linn Stuckenbruck Teaching Excellence Award. The award was announced at the PMI Global Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 1, 2022. PMI is the world’s leading organization for the project management profession with over 680,000 members in 180 countries and territories around the world.

Kramer, the J.E. Wilborn Endowed Chair, is known throughout the community for his ongoing dedication to outreach projects. His local, national and international service learning work illustrates his commitment to helping others while at the same time preparing Auburn students for their professional careers. Now in his 30^th year of teaching, he holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Auburn as well as a Ph.D. in Educational Technology from Purdue University.

The Stuckenbruck Award honors faculty members who demonstrate excellence in teaching project management in higher education. PMI’s annual awards honor various projects, chapter activity and research, but only one faculty teaching award is given each year, and the committee of independent reviewers was impressed with Kramer’s nomination. “This submission shows a candidate with a passion for teaching, engaging students in the discipline and getting them outside their comfort zone,” a committee member stated. Another reviewer said, “Your program epitomizes PMI’s effort to create changemakers through the use of project management. The evidence shows you are doing this successfully in your program through your teaching approach and setting a foundation for students to bring positive change and value creation for beneficiaries through construction project management.”

Kramer says that his career path was inspired by his father, a construction superintendent who worked on large complex projects across the U.S. “From an early age I grew up with the idea that I wanted to become a Project Manager in the building design and construction discipline,” he said. Kramer’s involvement with PMI has come full circle. In 1997 he co-authored a research paper, Teaching Project Management Through an Information Technology-Based Method, which was named the 1997 Paper of The Year by the PMI Project Management Journal. Twenty-five years later, he is again recognized by PMI for his excellence in teaching. “I love teaching project management classes and hopefully have inspired a new generation of professionals to tackle the complex challenges of today’s projects.”

Above: Professor Scott Kramer with Pierre Le Manh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Project Management Institute