After receiving a BA in English from Miami University of Ohio, Carol Elsen accepted a
four-year doctoral teaching fellowship in English from The Ohio State University. While at OSU, she taught
freshman composition as well as a variety of literature classes and partnered in the creation of the now
distinguished creative writing publication, The Ohio Journal.
Carol Elsen lives in Missoula, Montana and teaches as an adjunct instructor for the University of Montana,
but has primarily taught high school English for over fifteen years. Ten years ago, her onsite school created
an online distance learning school and she became one of the pioneer teachers for the program which has
exponentially grown in students and sophistication over the years of its existence.
In addition to teaching onsite and online, she initiated and developed the AP English program in her high school
and has enjoyed teaching AP English Language and Composition for the past ten years as well as AP English Literature
and Composition for the last two years. In 2001, the College Board invited her to be a reader of exams and the following
August trained her to be a faculty consultant for the Western Region of the College Board. In addition to teaching
many College Board institutes and workshops throughout the Western Region, she also teaches online for UCLA and has been
invited by the College Board to offer workshops at AP National Conferences. Since the inception of the SAT writing sample,
she has scored student essays online and currently works online as a content writer of college level American Literature courses.
Locally, she has presented workshops on Portfolios and AP Scoring at Montana State Teachers’ Conventions as well as shared
presentations at the University of Montana and the NCTE conventions with Dr. Beverly Chin. Serving as a trainer of trainers,
as well as a scorer, for the Montana Writing Assessment, she has a special interest in the challenges and rewards of helping
teachers prepare high school students for college writing. She has experienced a spectrum of teaching opportunities whether
it be directing high school students, preparing college students for the teaching profession, or teaching teachers of AP English.
Things she loves to do besides read and teach are travel to visit family in Italy and at their family Lodge in northern
Wisconsin, as well as garden, swim, hike the mountains, and soak in the hot springs around her Montana home.
