Rate My Professor Kelli Custer

Kelli Custer, Ph.D., is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of World Languages and Composition at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU), as well as Coordinator of the Writing Center. She earned her B.A. and M.A. from Idaho State University and her Ph.D. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Custer brings nearly 30 years of experience in teaching writing and working in writing centers from institutions in Idaho, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Colorado, having joined the WCSU faculty in 2012. Initially serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Linguistics, and Creative Process, she has advanced to her current roles, coordinating WCSU's composition courses and overseeing the Writing Center's operations to support student writers.

Dr. Custer's dedication to teaching excellence earned her the Board of Regents System-Wide Teaching Award in the Connecticut State Universities category for 2018-19. She led a three-year, $174,331 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation awarded in 2014 to develop, implement, and assess WCSU's First Year Experience program, integrating it into the general education framework to ease first-year student transitions. Her professional contributions include hosting the Northeast Writing Center Association conference at WCSU, anticipating 275 attendees from across the Northeast. Dr. Custer presented “The Development of Self-Efficacy in Writing Center Tutors” at the 2019 International Writing Center Association/National Council of Peer Tutors in Writing Annual Conference. Her scholarship features the article “To Tell Afterward: The Stories of Five Scholars in Composition-Rhetoric.” Through her leadership, the Writing Center remains a vital campus resource, promoting literacy and building writer confidence among students.