Hi! I’m Katie!

This will be my ninth year of teaching in higher education. Within those nine years, I received my MA in English from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) and my Ph.D. in English from Middle Tennessee State University (True Blue!). For both my MA and doctoral degrees, I focused specifically on rhetoric and composition.

Due to this specialization, I became particularly interested in best practices for teaching writing. However, as all courses had an online component by the time I was teaching, whether they were onsite, synchronous, or asynchronous, I also became interested in how teachers were mindful of their course design in order to foster student learning and to enhance student success. Six different institutions and one pandemic later, I have come to appreciate just how much the design of a course can have an impact on learning and success and the repeated need for referencing research to understand the accessibility needs of a diverse and ever-fluid technologically literate population.

I have also come to understand the importance of listening to the user’s needs whether that user is the student of a class, the instructor of a class, an administration or all the above.

When I am not thinking about teaching or course design, I am enjoying the outdoors on walks with my dog, riding my horse, hiking beautiful areas, and enjoying good food with family and friends.