Texas Exes Honor BGS Instructor With Top 10 Teaching Award

David Quintanilla, an associate professor of instruction in the Department of Business, Government & Society, has been named one of the top 10 teachers for 2024. Since 2011, the Alcalde, the magazine of the Texas Exes, has asked alumni to nominate professors at The University of Texas for the Texas 10 teaching award. 

Quintanilla, who earned a B.A. in government from UT in 2003, says he found his true calling at the University. “It was Jan. 17, 2017, that I found my dream job. And that was the day that I walked into the classroom,” he says in Alcalde. “I was there for all of two minutes. And I said, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”

Quintanilla is also a lawyer, has worked in the restaurant business and in health care, and has even run for political office. He also holds an M.S. in philosophy and public policy from the London School of Economics and a law degree from St. Mary’s University. 

Throughout his career at the University, he has found that being a positive influence in the lives of young people has been especially rewarding. “To know that there are students who have gone through my classroom who look back and say, ‘That guy helped me,’ and ‘That guy made a difference.’ … That’s what this is about,” he says in Alcalde.