Faculty & Staff

Dr. Kelli Criss began her teaching career by using the Orton-Gillingham Method of reading instruction with students diagnosed with dyslexia. She later taught students with varying exceptionalities in both private and public school settings. As a graduate assistant, she worked with the South Carolina Reading Initiative, a federally funded Reading First program. Her dissertation research involved initiating and facilitating a bilingual family book club with Latino parents and their children in a Florida elementary school. As adjunct faculty at Flagler College and Colorado Christian University, she trained pre-service and classroom teachers in reading instruction. At the Florida Department of Education, she served as a Reading Specialist. After moving to Georgia in 2021, she became an education consultant and is now privileged to join the Montessori Academy at Sharon Springs as a Literacy and Intervention Specialist. She holds a BA in English and Spanish from Georgia Southern University, a MEd in Exceptional Student Education from Regent University, and a PhD in Language and Literacy Education from the University of South Carolina.