Susan Gebhard

Dr. Susan Gebhard ("Dr. G.") began teaching at Salem College in 2008. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She says she is a huge Steeler fan and bleeds black and gold except during March Madness when she bleeds blue and white for her undergraduate alma mater, Duke University.

After she finished her M.A.T.,  Dr. G. worked as an elementary reading specialist and then a classroom teacher (grades 4-6) in Dayton, Ohio. Next, in Durham, North Carolina, she taught a mixed-age classroom (grades 3-6) for one year at an alternative private school.

From there Dr. G. moved to teaching fourth grade at Sewickley Academy, an independent school outside of Pittsburgh. She returned to Durham for a year as a reading specialist at Greensboro Day School and then left the classroom to pursue her doctoral degree. After graduate school she worked as a literacy teacher for learning disabled students at a local resource center as well as adjunct faculty and instructor for elementary education at one of the Pennsylvania State schools. After a two-year stint as a principal in Florida, she moved back into higher education as an assistant professor at UNC Pembroke and then came to Salem to direct the teacher education program.

Dr. G. says it was difficult decision to return to doing administrative work. She really disliked being out of the classroom when she served as a principal. But the faculty, the gorgeous setting, and the promise of working with students lured her in to becoming the Director of Teacher Education at Salem College. Dr. G. thinks there’s something special about the ambiance of Salem and the attitude of Salem students that sets it apart.

Dr. G. teaches courses such as Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century (ed. tech and a little of general classroom overviews), Text in Context (children’s literature), Learners in Context (diversity survey course), Intermediate Literacy (reading methods 4-8), Action Research (graduate), and Teach 2.0 (graduate), along with any other courses that might needed at any given time. Her research interests include ideas about social modeling and affect, instructional technology, and multi-cultural/diversity education.

Dr. G. has a husband, three children, three cats, and one very large Scottish Deerhound. Sleeping is a recreational activity for her as she has a busy life. One of her daughters has followed in her footsteps by enrolling as an undergraduate at Dr. G.'s alma mater Duke University. 

Advice to prospective education students: “Teaching is the most amazing, exhilarating, frustrating, exhausting, and wonderful vocation in the world. It is not for the faint at heart. I believe with all my soul that teachers simply must love what they do and feel passionate not only about the students, but about the content and about the society we prepare them for.” 

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Favorite Quotation
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” 
                ~Arthur C. Clarke