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Available Consultants

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During her 35-year career Debby Atherton held successful positions as an elementary, middle, and high school teacher and principal. Before her tenure as principal of Bullitt East High School, Ms. Atherton served as a Director of Secondary Education, a District Assessment Coordinator, and Regional Science Consultant for the Kentucky Department of Education.  Ms. Atherton was honored with the Louisville Writing Project's Patrona Award for her support of the teaching of writing.  In 2021 Governor Andy Beshear appointed Ms. Atherton to the state's School Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability Council.  (SCAAC) Since her retirement Ms. Atherton has provided professional development for teachers and administrators throughout Kentucky as a private educational consultant for Abell & Atherton Educational Consulting, Inc.  In Spring of 2023 Ms. Atherton decided to validate the relevance of her Writing Training by returning to the classroom and subbing long term as a Junior English teacher.  Loving every day of this experience she taught American Literature and prepared approximately 135 high school juniors for their state On-Demand Writing Assessment.  Feeling she needed to "walk the walk" she'd been sharing for many years, she eagerly accepted this opportunity. In a survey of her students, 98% reported that her plan for writing an argument made a difference in both their writing ability and in their own comfort with writing.

Holly Elmore is a recently retired English teacher, specializing in using reading comprehension to illicit writing skills from students ranging from grades 6-12. Maintaining student engagement with differentiated instruction and strong student relationships are at the heart of her success in the classroom. For half of her teaching career, she taught ELA and Social Studies, and has collaborated and coached numerous content area teachers as they integrated engaging literacy strategies into curriculum.  She is a WKU Writing Project Writing Fellow; a mentor teacher for the Butler County School District; and a mentee/former student of the late Sylvia Abell.

Andrea Isaacs is a tenth-year English teacher who lives to inspire others both inside and out of the classroom. She currently teaches sophomores and AP Literature, but has experience teaching all levels of high school.  Andrea specializes in high-energy instruction and student engagement that bring writing and reading to a prominent center of the educational experience. She has worked as a presenter for the Louisville Writing Project, University of Louisville, Bellarmine, Spaulding and throughout Kentucky in a variety of professional development and teacher trainings that encourage teachers to visually engage students, emphasize classroom culture, and student-centered learning all while incorporating progressive technology and cross-content collaboration. She is also currently the representative for Bullitt County in working with KASA to bring positive legislation to recruit and retain teachers. 

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