Brian Cooper wins national Distinguished Teacher Award

Featured Faculty

Julie Cooper | October 26, 2022

Brian Cooper, senior lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State, has received the Higher Education Distinguished Teacher Award 2022 from the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) at their October conference in Minneapolis.  

Cooper, who earned his master’s degree (’02) and a doctorate (’12) from Texas State, was nominated for the award by retired geography professor Byron Augustin, who taught at TXST for more than 30 years.

“It is my first national teaching award. I like that it also raises the profile of the department and the university,” Cooper said. “It really meant a lot to be nominated by Doc (Augustin).”

Cooper is the 15th Texas State faculty member to earn this recognition from the NCGE since 1982. The NCGE was chartered in 1915 as a nonprofit scientific and education society that promotes and supports geography education.

Born and raised in South Carolina, Cooper was named undergraduate program coordinator for geography in 2016.

“I’ve loved geography since I was a little kid. My dad was a coach who taught geography.” Fascinated by maps, Cooper said he never considered the subject a career path until he entered his senior year at Clemson University, where he was a biological sciences major.  After considering medical school and engineering it was teaching geography in a university that became his goal.