Dr. Shari Koopman, Professor of English, Valencia

Shari Koopmann has taught composition and creative writing at Valencia College since 2000. She is the recipient of the Faculty Association Award for Excellence in Counseling, Teaching, and Librarianship (2019) and the NISOD Excellence Award in Teaching (2010). In addition to teaching, Shari has spent many years working in faculty development, serving as Activity Coordinator for the Teaching/Learning Academy, which provides support on pedagogy, course design, student development, and professional portfolio development for tenure candidates.

Shari holds a doctoral degree in education from the University of Central Florida, a master's degree in literature from the University of New Hampshire, and a bachelor’s degree in English from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. Her dissertation focused on the relationship between service-learning and civic engagement in the two-year college.

When Shari's not teaching, she’s writing. She has published poetry in small press journals, including Red Hand Press’s Fulva Flava literary annual, Second-Hand Production’s Falling Star Magazine, Day Break Press’s Prism Quarterly, and Ascent Aspirations Magazine’s anthologies Aqua Terra and Close to Quitting Time, in which she was awarded prizes for her poems “Today’s Lesson: Staying Dry” and “Treading Water." Bella Books published her third novel in February of 2019.