Suzan Nelson, Ed.D.

Currently Suzan Nelson is the Program Director of the Masters of Science in Education Program at St. Joseph’s. For over 12 years she has been an adjunct faculty member teaching ED 505, Curriculum Design and Assessment. Her past experience includes Director of the University College, a part of the UMaine system and 33 years as a school teacher and school librarian where she served as a member of the high school’s “Shared Leadership Team.” Her educational background may sound like many of yours. Originally she didn’t plan to work in the field of education. With a B.A. in Journalism, her first jobs were in the fields of radio and television. It was while working for Maine Public Television that she returned to school and received a Masters of Education degree in Instructional Systems.

Following her masters work, she was hired as part of a Teacher Corps grant to work in the Old Town, Maine school system and for the University of Maine doing media projects. She also worked two mornings a week in a nearby small rural school teaching writing to meet the requirements of her teaching certificate. Upon completion of the grant, she was hired to teach reading and English in the school where she had been working under the grant. She later moved to Portland and taught at Portland High School in a new program for truants and dropouts. During this teaching assignment she completed course work for a library/ media specialist certification.

She has since enjoyed a long career in school librarianship: eight years as a middle school librarian, three years as librarian for five elementary libraries and twenty years as a high school librarian for the Portland and Falmouth school systems.  She did take a ten-year break from education while she worked as Manager of Public Affairs for a local cable company.
Many years ago she was given the wonderful opportunity to join a cohort group in the “Leaders for Tomorrow’s Schools” program created by the University of Southern Maine in conjunction with the Casco Bay Alliance Association (CBEA). Cohort members had varying educational goals, ranging from administration, and masters degrees and Certificates of Advanced Study. This program provided an exceptional and exciting learning community through which she was able to complete a Certificate of Advanced Study (C.A.S.) in Educational Leadership in Curriculum Design. Later she was awarded the third National Board Teacher Certification in Library Science in the state. This gave her the confidence to continue her education at Walden where she received a Doctorate in Educational Leadership in 2010.

Professionally she has served in many offices, including that of President of the Maine Association of School Libraries (MASL) and will serve as the Regional Chair of University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA.)  For pleasure, her husband Ken and her travel as often as we can to just about anywhere. Recent trips include Vietnam, China, South Africa, Iceland, Peru, and the Galapagos Islands.  Additionally, she loves to read contemporary fiction and how-to books; she enjoys all handcrafts, gardening, photography, and singing. She sang for many years with both the Portland Community Chorus and the Magic of Christmas Chorus.