The path Sally Hunnicutt MS’86 took to becoming a 2025 Distinguished Alumna of the University of Utah's Department of Chemistry began with a simple childhood pastime. "I used to pretend to be a teacher with a chalkboard," she recalls. That early passion for teaching would eventually merge with her love of chemistry to create a career dedicated to revolutionizing how science is taught.
Growing up in suburban Philadelphia in the 1960s, Hunnicutt discovered chemistry in high school. While she credits her teachers with encouraging her to attend summer chemistry camps, something deeper drew her to the subject and her parents “always encouraged us to do as well as we could academically,” she says.
As much as she loved chemistry, she loved the idea of being a teacher even more.
At Duke University, where her father earlier studied history, Hunnicutt pursued both chemistry and education, earning a BA in chemistry along with a teaching certificate. After teaching high school for a year in Durham, North Carolina, she met her future husband, Mike Hunnicutt, then a graduate student. When Mike accepted a position at the University of Utah, Sally saw an opportunity and decided to apply for graduate school at the U.
Her acceptance came with a memorable phone call. "Ted Eyring called me at school while I was teaching," she remembers referring to the son of the celebrated Henry Eyring for which the chemistry building is named. "He said, 'You've been accepted,' which I was beyond thrilled about because I didn't think I was [competitive]—I was not a BS student."
What followed was a challenging introduction to graduate-level physical chemistry. The department's rigorous math preparation packet, created by Randy Shirts, arrived in the mail that summer. "It was about 50 pages of math review—higher level math, differential equations and linear algebra," Hunnicutt recalls. Finding herself in a cohort where "everyone else had taken math courses and double majors in math and chemistry," she had to make a critical decision.
Her breakthrough came when she learned a fundamental lesson about learning itself. After complaining to a fellow student, she discovered that Shirts had his own complaints. "No one asks me any questions," he is reported as saying. That revelation changed everything. "I started going to his office. I started recopying my notes.,” says Hunnicutt. “And if I didn't understand something, I would go and ask him about it. The door was open anytime—[it was,] ‘come in, ask me.’"
This experience would profoundly influence her own teaching philosophy. After completing her master's at Utah, earning her Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati, and teaching at the University of Dayton, Hunnicutt moved to Virginia Commonwealth University, where she would spend most of her career. There, facing classes of 200 to 300 students—a dramatic shift from the 70 or fewer she'd taught before—she realized traditional lecturing wasn't working.
The turning point came after taking "very bad advice from a colleague" to be strict, resulting in teaching evaluations that averaged two on a five-point scale. "It was really appallingly bad," she admits. But this failure sparked innovation. She completely transformed her approach, implementing what she calls guided inquiry learning, where "students have engaged with the material" before lectures begin. "When they've wrestled with it [before class], when I spoke, then they were like, 'Oh, she's a great lecturer.’” But the truth was something more elemental and student-based. “No, no, you don't understand,” she would exclaim. “It's because you were primed to learn."
Her pioneering work caught the National Science Foundation's attention, leading to grants totaling over $1.5 million and the creation of a national community of practice for physical chemistry instructors. "We have a whole catalog of materials that you can just adopt," she explains, materials that continue helping faculty nationwide even after her retirement.
Throughout her career at VCU, Hunnicutt was recognized for her dedication to teaching excellence, receiving the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences Teaching Award in 2012 and the VCU University Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015. She also served as Associate Chair in the Department of Chemistry. Her commitment extended to faculty development and curriculum design, leaving a lasting impact on the university. She also played a vital role in the conception and development of VCU's new STEM Building, which includes the Sally Hunnicutt Science Hub, named in her honor.
Now professor emerita at VCU, Hunnicutt remains active in chemistry education while serving on the board of Richmond's Blue Sky Fund, a nonprofit providing outdoor and science education to underserved youth. Her two sons both became teachers—one in political science at the University of Oregon where his on the faculty in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management and the other as a middle school math teacher who leads outdoor expeditions in Seattle.
Looking back on her Utah experience, Hunnicutt speaks warmly of the accessibility she found there and credits the university with helping instigate her success. "I was very well prepared for all the exams and things," she says.
That preparation, combined with the lesson Sally Hunnicutt learned about asking questions, set her on a path from childhood play at a chalkboard to transform chemistry education for thousands of students.
