Jill Clutter, Assistant Professor of Clinical in the School of Allied Medical Professions, is a recipient of the 2009 OSU Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. The award is based on nominations made by present and former students and colleagues and selected by a committee of alumni, students, and faculty.

Clutter was instrumental in developing the School’s health and wellness major and the courses within that major (of which she teaches four). And she did all that while simultaneously completing her doctorate in education and moving into a regular clinical faculty position after years of being in a staff position.

Now in her first year of her regular faculty appointment, she has drawn wide praise for her creative teaching techniques that engage her students and not only bring the outside world into the classroom, but also take her classroom into the outside world.

“She has this amazing ability to turn her class into a home and her students into a family,” one student said. “She sent us out into the community and the projects we did not only helped us learn but also helped the community. She makes her students want to make her proud. She taught us to find ourselves, to have opinions, to mature, and to believe in ourselves and others.”

Clutter has not published textbooks or course materials, but has been responsible for development of multiple class materials used by the students in her courses. “Many of these innovative methods will lend themselves to publication,” a colleague noted. “She has been instrumental in the organization of the entire curriculum and works with PAES and the College of Public Health to integrate some of their courses into our curriculum to assure the breadth of understanding for our students.”

Clutter received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate from Ohio State.