Nygaard-Petersen receives Kelly Outstanding New Teacher Award

Learn more about Royal Roads University's School of Business.

The associate faculty members who were named co-winners of Royal Roads University’s 2025 Kelly Outstanding Teacher Award for New Teacher may teach in different areas but they have at least two things in common: experience in their fields and the ability to bring that experience into the classroom. 

Karly Nygaard-Petersen teaches in the School of Business, and Stephen Roughley, is an instructor in the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. 

Karly Nygaard-Petersen 

Nygaard-Petersen has twice been a student at Royal Roads — she earned both a Master of Business Administration in Executive Management and a Doctor of Business Administration at RRU — and brings that experience as a learner to her role as a teacher. 

She leads a course on creating customer value, a marketing component of the MBA program, and says, “Every learner has a perspective and experience that I think is valuable. So, I approach it from the perspective that we're peers and colleagues, and we all have something to teach each other. 

“I’m like a navigator. I guide them through the course, but they're all bringing their own ideas, perspectives and lived experience to the table, and we try to tailor the concepts and the learning to the context that they're bringing forth.” 

Indeed, Nygaard-Petersen impressed the Kelly Awards committee with her ability to blend strong instructional design with lived professional experience and dynamic class delivery while making students feel supported as co-creators of their learning. 

Nygaard-Petersen works on the shared mobility portfolio for the BC Automobile Associatio, with a focus on marketing. She brings that perspective to the classroom as well as providing . real-world cases and clients for students to study and help. 

“My goal is to make the material accessible, to generate as much passion for the subject as I have for those in my class and, of course, to have fun,” she says.  

Asked how her education at RRU influences her work as an instructor, she says, “It's inseparable to my approach… I still have a very good sense of what it was like and the intensity of the program —you're trying to work, you're balancing your family life and your career, which is demanding.” 

As for the Kelly New Teacher Award, Nygaard-Petersen says, “It's a bit of a full-circle moment. And it's really nice to get that reassurance or that boost that, hey, what you're doing is making an impact.” 

About the Kelly Awards

The Kelly Outstanding Teaching Awards recognize core and associate faculty members and Continuing Studies facilitators who are representative of outstanding teaching at Royal Roads. They were created in recognition of Dr. Gerald O. Kelly, RRU’s first installed president, and honour teachers who promote the university’s learner-centred philosophy while making positive contributions to teaching excellence.

The Kelly Outstanding Teaching Awards are open to all Royal Roads University faculty members who are actively engaged in teaching for-credit or non-credit courses at RRU. A call for nominations is sent out each spring to faculty, staff, and students. Learn more about the awards and see past recipients.

Learn more about Royal Roads University's School of Business.