Marva Barnett (Ph.D., Harvard, 1980) is the founding Director of the Teaching Resource Center, which since 1990 has promoted excellence in teaching throughout the University of Virginia. Ms. Barnett also holds the rank of professor at the University of Virginia, where she teaches in the Department of French. Her current research project is an anthology of works of Victor Hugo focusing on the contemporary relevance of his ideas and presenting a wide variety his writings in literary and historical context.

She has received the Elizabeth Zintl Leadership Award (2002), the Stephen A. Freeman Award for Best Teaching Technique Article (on writing as a process) (1990), the Paul Pimsleur Award for Best Research Article in Foreign Language Education (on the roles of semantic and syntactical in foreign language reading) (1987), and the Virginia Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Education (1988). She has taught undergraduate and graduate French courses at the U. of Virginia, Indiana U., Purdue U., Harvard U., and the U. of Maine at Orono. She taught English in France as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant.

Grants she has received for Teaching Resource Center projects include $300,000 for the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professorships and $150,000 for Lilly Teaching Fellowships, now the University Teaching Fellows Program. Co-author of Teaching at the University of Virginia: A Handbook for Faculty and TAs, she currently directs the University Teaching Fellows Program, co-directs the Excellence in Diversity Fellows Program, oversees the NEH Distinguished Teaching Professorships, and supervises the bi-annual TRC workshop on creating teaching portfolios.