Teaching Excellence 2026: Brianna Strumm discovered her passion when she took a career turn

There was no classroom, no curriculum, and no formal training — just a seven-year-old Brianna Strumm, a stack of homemade worksheets, and a group of stuffed animals ready to learn.

Though she began her career in social work, Brianna now sees those early moments as the start of her path to teaching.

“I was teaching my two siblings when I was seven or eight years old,” she says with a laugh. “We’d play ‘school’ in the summertime. I’d have worksheets printed up and stuffed animals sitting in empty chairs. I’d be teaching them how to read, and my mom was like, ‘It’s too quiet. What is going on?’”

Brianna, an associate professor and chair of UFV’s Bachelor of Social Work program, is UFV’s 2026 Teaching Excellence Award winner.

After earning her Bachelor of Social Work (2004) and Master of Social Work (2010) from the University of Calgary, Brianna was fully immersed in that field when a friend from Mount Royal University, heading on sabbatical, asked her if she would be interested in covering a class in the fall of 2011.

“I got into the classroom and loved it,” she recalls. “I loved how it felt to be creative and to mentor and support students. I felt so proud whenever a student had an ‘aha’ moment. It was, and still is, energizing and rewarding.”

From that first day, Brianna has approached teaching the same way she approaches social work — with kindness and compassion.

“I want students to treat each other with kindness and build a sense of community in the classroom,” says Brianna, who earned a doctorate from Carleton University in 2022. “People want to be treated well, just like I do, and kindness goes a long way.”

A strong believer in trauma-informed teaching, she says it’s important to realize that students may have external factors impacting their academic performance. She prioritizes getting to know her students, so she can better support them. She also emphasizes confidence building, focusing not on what students do wrong, but on what they do right.

“If people feel stressed or worried, it’s going to be difficult to succeed,” she says. “I’m not here to discount their efforts. I’m here to create conditions and provide opportunities for students to thrive.”

Another pillar of her philosophy is giving students a voice and encouraging them to take the lead in their education. As BSW program chair, she is focused on ensuring students have different opportunities to advance their knowledge and skills. She also works to keep curriculum relevant, up to date, and reflective of trends in social work education.

She seeks student input where appropriate and aims to build flexibility into the program to meet diverse needs.

“There’s lots of opportunity to practise building skills through experiential learning, taking risks, trying things for the first time, and being vulnerable,” she says. “I want them to be empowered to be their best selves.”

Candice Quesnel, a UFV Bachelor of Social Work alumna and now palliative services manager with the Chilliwack Hospice Society, shared a personal example of Brianna’s impact.

Quesnel says she was in her early 50s when she arrived at UFV, five years sober with a long history of substance misuse.

“I came to UFV feeling out of place, burdened by self-doubt, guilt, and imposter syndrome,” she says. “I questioned my worthiness of being in an academic setting, particularly because of my past struggles with addiction and the stigma I felt as an older student. Dr. Strumm not only saw my potential but actively worked with me to overcome these feelings of shame and inadequacy. She helped me reframe my lived experiences as assets rather than liabilities, showing me that the very qualities I thought made me ‘less than’ were, in fact, invaluable strengths in the field of social work.”

Candice says Brianna consistently validated her perspective, fostering a classroom environment where she felt valued not only for her academic performance, but for her personal history and growth.

“Her belief in me helped me recognize that my struggles, rather than holding me back, made me better suited to the career I was pursuing,” she says. “Through her encouragement, I found the strength to push past my self-doubt and continue my studies with renewed confidence.”

Brianna has received two student-nominated teaching excellence awards at other institutions (2016 and 2018). In 2024 and 2025, she was awarded funds for the Teaching Inquiries into Pedagogical Practices (TIPP) initiative focused on Changemaking at UFV. She is also active in research in the field of social work and serves as the director for the UFV Centre for Justice, Equity, and Sustainable Action (JESA). Her first co-authored textbook, Transformative Community Development, comes out this year.

Her areas of interest in teaching and research include international social work practice, feminist social work, arts- and community-based research, community development, group facilitation, trauma-informed pedagogy and practice, practitioner well-being, and women’s health.

She received internal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Explore Grants in 2023 and 2025 for her collaborative research on trauma-informed pedagogy.

Tim Dueck, a colleague in the School of Social Work and Human Services, says Brianna delivers course material with a strong command of the subject while keeping it accessible to students.

“She excels at engaging students in her classes using a range of educational strategies, including small-group breakouts, engaging lectures, and interactive class activities,” he says. “It is no surprise that I often hear social work students praising Brianna and talking about how much they enjoy her classes.”

Eric Welsh — eric.welsh@ufv.ca