Profs. Lesley Meng and A.J. Wasserstein Win 2026 Teaching Awards
Meng, who teaches the Operations Engine course, won for teaching in the core curriculum; Wasserstein, who teaches courses on entrepreneurship, won for elective teaching.
Lesley Meng, assistant professor of operations management, and A.J. Wasserstein, the Eugene F. Williams, Jr., Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Management, are the winners of Yale SOM’s annual teaching awards for residential programs.
They were selected by students in the full-time MBA program, the Master of Advanced Management program, the Master’s Degree in Global Business and Society program, the Master’s Degree in Asset Management program, the Master’s Degree in Systemic Risk program, and the Master’s Degree in Technology Management program.
Meng, who previously won the core teaching award in 2022 and 2024, teaches the Operations Engine course.
“I am incredibly grateful for this recognition and thank my students for making it possible,” Meng said. “What makes a classroom come alive is the people in it, and I have been lucky enough to have students who show up fully to every lecture, bringing with them their questions, skepticism, and humor. It has been a joy to teach each and every one of them, and I wish them all the very best on the rest of their Yale journey and beyond!”
Wasserstein teaches Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition; Leading Small and Medium Enterprises; Patterns in Entrepreneurship; and Rollups, Consolidations and Programmatic Acquisitions. He previously received the elective teaching award in 2022 and 2024.
“I am honored and flattered to have received this year’s faculty teaching award,” Wasserstein said. “Yale’s extremely talented and ambitious students make my job fun and easy because they inspire me to be my best. I am very lucky to have the greatest job imaginable. I get to think, read, research, write, and teach about topics I am genuinely curious and passionate about in an amazing community of terrific students and supportive colleagues.”
