Kelli Randall, Assistant Professor of English
Story by Freddy Valencia

When you first approach Dr. Kelli Randall in her office, diligently typing away on her computer, you are immediately struck with a sense of comfort. Her walls are decorated with pictures of her family, her beloved Cocker Spaniel, Daisy, and a bookcase filled mostly with books about rights for minorities and women. Right away, you see a young woman fresh out of graduate school with an ambition to make changes in what some might call a flawed society.

My first thought was, "Wow, here's a person who must have known what she wanted to do since day one."  But Randall provides all of us struggling students who still don't know what we want to do in life with a ray of hope. Growing up, she had spent the first eighteen years of her life in Chicago, Illinois. Like the majority of young men and women leaving home for the first time, her first two years away were filled with parties and great memories. It wasn't until midway through her sophomore year at Emory University that she realized what she wanted to do was teach English. Coming from a family consisting of mostly educators (her father is a retired history, math, and science teacher, her mother is an English teacher, her sister is a biology teacher, and her aunt is an English professor) you would think she would walk straight into the family business, but instead she spent her first two years studying to become a doctor.

During her time away at school, she was troubled by the lack of female teachers of color. The majority of her teachers were white males and she felt that it was her responsibility to change this by introducing more diverse programs into the academic world. After graduating from Emory with a bachelors degree in English, she gained her masters from Penn. State, and then returned to Emory for one more stint to attain her PhD. She is the first person in her family to achieve this level of higher education, but she is quick to dedicate it to her entire family for all their support throughout the years.

Just like any other teacher, Randall lives a completely normal life outside of the classroom. Her hobbies include shopping, taking road trips in her Honda Element, watching movies (mostly vampire films), playing piano, and like any other English teacher, reading. She has always had a deep passion for reading, which most likely stems from her fourth and sixth grade teacher, Zeus Preckwinkle. He would sponsor reading contests which, of course, were always won by Randall.

Randall played piano for her community church and offered piano lessons from the comfort of her own home. She has no lack of experience in the teaching world, having taught at four other colleges including Emory, Dekalb Technical College, Georgia Perimeter College and, most recently, Spelman College before coming here to Salisbury University.

The first question that may come to mind after seeing a resume like that is, why SU? Coming fresh out of Emory with a PhD, Randall was simply testing the job market with no serious expectations. Seeing great potential in Randall's impressive resume, SU was the first of seven colleges to show an interest. After seeing that SU was very serious about adding her to the English Department, she came in for a teaching demo and was immediately blown away by the level of maturity and knowledge the students here at SU had shown. Right then she knew that SU was the place for her, and she didn't bother to reply to any of the other schools showing interest. Although she has only lived in the area for a couple months, she already loves it here, and the level of diversity is making for an easy transition into this university.

"I love it here," she says.  "It's almost going too well."

The way Randall runs her classes is somewhat different from other teachers. She tends to be a little more strict regarding classroom policies in the beginning, but as the semester progresses, she begins to "let her hair down." Not being very fond of tests and quizzes, she prefers to assign papers and allow for peer review. Although her classes consist of mostly lectures for the first couple weeks, it is her goal to establish class discussions where the students initiate the topics of conversation.

"The classroom is a place for comfortable, intellectual exchange," she says.

Attaining a PhD and a job as a college professor may be more than enough for most, but Randall doesn't plan to stop there. It is her goal to turn her dissertation into a book by expanding on some of the major chapters, and she is also working on expanding the multicultural studies program here at SU. Although she is already working her dream job by teaching here, if she had to do anything else, it would be to start her own editing and publishing company.