Cecile Nespral Hurley received her MS at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1979, she has served as Lecturer and Coordinator of Freshman Chemistry at the University of Connecticut, where she directed a groundbreaking National Science Foundation-supported project on cooperative learning in general chemistry. She is one of a prestigious group of University Teaching Fellows who are selected by their fellow faculty members as models of teaching excellence and dedication. In addition, she coordinates the High School Cooperative Program in Chemistry through which superior Connecticut high school students take the university's general chemistry course at their schools. In her spare time, Professor Hurley roots for the University of Connecticut women's basketball Huskies--and roots out weeds from her country garden, which she likes to imagine rivals Monet's at Giverny.