Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt

English instructor
Yakima Valley Community College
Nob Hill Blvd. & S. 16th Ave.
P.O. Box 22520
Yakima, WA 98902 ccalhoon@yvcc.edu

Phone:(W) 509-574-4832; (cell) 509-833-0811

Background Information

Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt teaches English, primarily developmental writing, and public speaking at Yakima Valley Community College in Washington State. She has been teaching at YVCC for fourteen years. Prior to teaching in the community college, she taught middle school Spanish and Language Arts and high school English (literature) and Speech/Debate. She earned her M.A. in Composition and Rhetoric at Washington State University, where her interests included multicultural and developmental education, writing centers, and writing assessment. She continues to actively research basic writing and writing assessment (particularly portfolio-based assessment). She presents regularly at NCTE, CCCC, and TYCA conferences and has authored journal articles related to writing programs in the two-year college and teaching developmental writing. She has also been actively involved in learning communities (including team teaching a developmental math/writing course developed through a MAC grant), writing centers, and assessment work. She is currently serving as Chair of National TYCA (Two-Year College English Assocation).

Related Pedagogical Projects

Carolyn has been actively involved in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), and the Two-Year College English Assocation (TYCA) for the past decade, serving on the Executive Committees for each as well as leadership roles in regional and national TYCA, and she actively participates in various NCTE, CCCC, and TYCA committees and task forces, including, most recently, committees on diversity and member engagement, dual credit/concurrent enrollment programs, and literacy policy advocacy. Additionally, she has participated in and/or supervised the development of several position statements related to academic preparation for teaching English in the two-year college, qualities of an effective two-year college instructor, and qualities of effective concurrent enrollment programs. Her leadership in TYCA involves regular participation in regional TYCA conferences as well; she visits two or three of TYCA's seven regional organizations each year, and she initiated an annaul online event, "Tour of TYCA," to encourage cross-regional sharing/publication. She serves as a reviewer for the journal, Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC), and has done guest reviews for other writing-related journals.

In the past, Carolyn participated in the Preparing Future Faculty Program (PFF) in partnership with Washington State University, and, for several years, she has instructed an assessment workshop as part of nearby Central Washington University's Teaching the Community College Certificate Program.

On campus, she has been active in assessment (programmatic and campus-wide) and accreditation activities as well as student advising and new student orientation. She has participated in campus research projects and collaborations related to writing placement, the transition from Adult Basic Education to college writing, developmental education, and interdisciplinary studies. She regularly tutors in the campus Writing Center and frequently takes classes on campus as a student, most recently in the campus's viticulture and enology program (as winemaking is a new hobby/small business pursuit for her and her husband).