Rate My Professor Kristen Pennycuff-Trent

Kristen Pennycuff-Trent, Ph.D., serves as a professor of literacy education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction within the College of Education at Tennessee Technological University. She earned her Ph.D. in Exceptional Learning with a Literacy Concentration in 2003, M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction with a Reading Concentration in 2000, and B.S. in Human Learning-Multidisciplinary Studies in 1995, all from Tennessee Technological University. A licensed Tennessee public school teacher with endorsements in K-8 and Reading Specialist, she began her career as a self-contained classroom instructor in Fentress County Schools from 1995 to 1998 and Cumberland County Schools from 1998 to 2001, teaching kindergarten through fifth grade. Transitioning to higher education in 2002, she advanced through positions including Director of the Tennessee Technological University Child Development Laboratory in 2002, Faculty Liaison and Coordinator of the Child Development Laboratory from 2002 to 2006, Instructor and Assistant Professor from 2002 to 2009, Associate Professor from 2009 to 2018, and Professor since 2018. Additionally, she has served as an independent reading consultant since 2001 and currently teaches in the TTU 2+2 program at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville.

Dr. Pennycuff-Trent’s expertise includes emergent literacy, bibliotherapy, literacy coaching, science and literacy integration, academic language, children’s and young adult literature, grant writing, and professional development for educators. She has secured $2,408,200 in grant funds since 2001. Her publications feature peer-reviewed articles such as “Examination of Professional Development on Perceived Importance of, Frequency of use of, Familiarity with, and Confidence Level for Research Based Middle School Literacy Instruction” (Journal of Academic Perspectives, 2015) and “The Impact of Policy Driven Professional Development on Emergent Literacy Instruction” (Forum on Public Policy Online, 2007). Key book chapters include “Bibliotherapy to prevent bullying” with Stephanie Richards (Prevention of Bullying, Springer, 2018), “Hungry for more: Exploring, experimenting, and engineering with The Hunger Games” with Leslie Suters (Exploring Science through Adolescent Literature, Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), and contributions to Meeting the Challenge of the edTPA (Kendall Hunt, 2022 and 2023). She has also produced state-level peer-reviewed works on character education, bullying prevention, test anxiety, and literature integration.