Alex Tabor Receives Graduate Student Teaching Award

The Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences has named Alex Tabor the 2024 recipient of its Graduate Student Teaching Award, which recognizes outstanding expertise in all areas of teaching, including curriculum development, instruction and student mentoring.

“Alex has demonstrated his sense of service as a citizen, a teacher, a professional and a person,” said Scott Sandage, associate professor and Tabor’s advisor in the Department of History. “His trio of talents — in pedagogy, technology and empathy — make him an ideal candidate for this teaching award.”

Learning Through Experience

While in high school, Tabor knew that he wanted to be a history teacher because he looked up to his own history teachers who provided him with mentorship and support. While attending Slippery Rock University for his bachelor’s degree in secondary education and social studies, Tabor taught at Carrick High School, part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

While studying at the University of Cincinnati for his M.A. in history, Tabor worked as a teaching assistant and was responsible for over 300 students across six classes. He was quickly involved in navigating new classroom dynamics and was exposed to a much wider array of different learning styles, age differences and levels of previous knowledge. While there, Tabor received the Department of History’s John K. Alexander Award for Excellence in Teaching.

While at Carnegie Mellon, Tabor started working in the government and nonprofit spaces, researching his subfields, social and human services. He worked as an instructor for the Petey Greene Program, an organization that supports the educational goals of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Tabor encourages anyone interested in volunteering with the Petey Greene Program to reach out to him.

“I learned [so much] in that setting, not just about teaching and learning, but about the human experience,” Tabor said. “In a place that is so structurally intent on denying humanity, with so many policies that continually repress it, the littlest thing blossoming is a nuclear good thing.”

Living and Working in a Historical Legacy

As he enters the final year of his Ph.D. program, Tabor is working to complete his dissertation on social welfare policies and systems within Western Pennsylvania. He is analyzing the historical emergence of Allegheny County’s integrated human service systems, including programs for children and family, behavior health, the aging population and more.

“I'm passionate about my research on the evolution of modern social services and delivery systems because I live and work in this historical legacy,” said Tabor. “As a product of an unstable upbringing who now serves vulnerable people through work for the county … I know that my research will enable administrators, planners and policy makers to make positive changes in these and other settings.”

Tabor looks forward to pursuing a career that allows him to conduct behind-the-scenes research toward legislative and policy development while directly engaging with underserved communities.