Rate My Professor Annie Kelly

Dr. Annie Catherine Kelly serves as Associate Professor - Educator and Course Director of First-Year Seminars in the College of Cooperative Education and Professional Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She is a passionate academic leader dedicated to advancing student success through high-impact programs that promote retention, belonging, and engagement. Her approach is rooted in the principles of Appreciative Advising and integrative learning, applied to support both students and her instructor team. In her role, Kelly oversees the strategic coordination of the first-year seminar course, PD 1015: Next Bearcat Lives Here, managing faculty development, peer education, curriculum design, and assessment initiatives. She is recognized for her contributions to first-year course design, peer leadership, and appreciative education, serving as a speaker and author on these topics. Additionally, she holds the position of Editor for Insights for College Transitions, published by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and is a faculty affiliate within the Office of Appreciative Education at Florida Atlantic University.

Kelly earned her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Loyola University Chicago. Her career history includes prior roles in faculty development, academic advising, and academic support at Loyola University Chicago, as well as experience in new student programming at the University of Kentucky. Her scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed publications such as 'Next Bearcat Lives Here: A University of Cincinnati First-Year Seminar' (2024) in Insights for College Transitions, Vol. 20(1), and 'Challenges and Opportunities: Reinventing Faculty Advising in the Era of COVID-19' (2022) co-authored with Ford and Bloom in the Journal of Appreciative Education. Book chapters feature 'Developing an Appreciative Peer Mentorship Curriculum in a Cooperative Education Program' (2023) with Cooper and Miskovic in New Directions in Student Services: Appreciative Frameworks in Student Affairs, and 'Feedback and Grading: Non-Graded Drafts' (2021) in Keeping Us Engaged: Student Perspectives on Learning and Motivation by Stylus Publishing. Her doctoral dissertation, '(Re)Imagining Community-Engaged Curriculum & Pedagogy: Shifting Subjectivities & Power/Knowledge Among Faculty/Doctoral Students' (2021), was completed at Loyola University Chicago. Kelly's research interests encompass first-year course design, peer leadership, and appreciative education.