University of Victoria (UVic) English professor, Rebecca Gagan, has been named Canada’s 2025 3M National Teaching Fellow, the country’s highest honour for post-secondary educators. She is recognized for her transformative work in post-secondary education and her national impact on creating inclusive learning environments.
Known for her student-first, compassionate approach to teaching, Gagan has tackled student mental health and well-being challenges by amplifying voices, building community, and creating connection in educational spaces.
Across her career at UVic, Gagan has championed inclusive, reflective and trauma-informed approaches that help students and their stories flourish. In 2014, she founded UVic Bounce, a multimedia storytelling project that shares real accounts from students, alumni and faculty on topics such as failure, grief, growth and perseverance. The accompanying podcast, Waving not Drowning, has recorded 51 episodes over two seasons with worldwide reach.
“Gagan has played an important role within and beyond UVic, helping advance our national dialogue about student mental health and well-being and inclusive pedagogy across the country,” says Dawn Schell, counsellor and manager of mental health outreach and training at UVic, in Gagan’s nomination package.
Leading with love in the classroom
Gagan’s approach to UVic Bounce and education is simple: teach with love. Indigenous culture and traditional wellness leader ‘Na̱mnasolag̱a Andrea Cranmer of the ‘Na̱mg̱is First Nation, Alert Bay, BC, inspired Gagan’s approach by speaking about trauma, residential schools, and the privilege of learning with love. Advocating teaching with love, Gagan embodies a “humanistic, non-judgemental, de-stigmatizing, intersectional approach to conversations about emotions, mental health, and illness, encouraging others to echo these attitudes and approaches in their teaching and learning,” says mental-health expert and educator Dr. Catharine Munn.
Gagan’s teaching stands out in the English department for her grounded commitment to student mental health. She infuses her classrooms with five core principles: teach with love, engage the whole student, practice hospitality and reciprocity, amplify student voices and experiences, and build community. Gagan’s leadership models her deeply held belief that student academic success is the responsibility of everyone in the institution: “It is our collective work to create a more compassionate, supportive, humane, and loving campus culture in which students, staff, and faculty are able to thrive.”
Recognizing teaching excellence
Before being awarded a 2025 3M National Teaching Fellowship, Gagan had already been recognized at UVic for her outstanding teaching: in 2014, she won the Gilian Sherwin Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2022, she won both the Harry Hickman Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching and Educational Leadership and the Faculty of Humanities’ Engaged Scholar Award. These awards acknowledge her efforts to build bridges between the university and the broader community through inclusive, impact-driven teaching.
The 3M National Teaching Fellowship is presented by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and 3M Canada. As one of 10 fellows selected this year, Gagan will be recognized at STLHE’s annual conference in Saskatoon in June and attend a fellows’ retreat at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in November.
Gagan will join a national cohort committed to transforming post-secondary education through collaboration and community-based leadership.
