Dr. Kristy Doss

Biography

Dr. Kristy Doss was one of the first students to receive her MAEd in WCU's special education, gifted concentration program. Since graduating in 2008, she completed her doctorate in gifted education at UGA and is now a visiting assistant professor in the School of Teaching and Learning. Over the past ten years, she has worked as an adjunct professor, teaching over thirty classes in gifted education, special education, research methods, and behavior disorders. In addition, she worked as an AIG specialist at Rugby Middle School for twenty years where she offered over 75 workshops on writing instruction, information literacy, differentiation, and reading strategies. While working on her master’s degree, she received a research award from the National Association for Gifted Children on a collaborative teaching program she designed. From her work on her dissertation, Kristy was selected by the American Creativity Association for the E. Paul Torrance Graduate Student Research Award for 2014 for her work entitled "Educational Impact on Spiritual Growth: A Case Study." She has presented her research on spiritual giftedness, problem-based learning, transforming teacher pedagogy, growth mindset, mindfulness, and curriculum units for gifted students at 23 conferences including the World Gifted Conference, the National Association for Gifted Children Conference, North Carolina Association for Gifted and Talented Conference, and SOTL Commons Conference. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Association for Gifted and Talented (NCAGT) and president for the NC AIG (Academically and Intellectually Gifted) IHE.

Education

• Ph D, University of Georgia, Educational Psychology - Gifted and Creative Education
• MAED, Western Carolina University
• BSED, Appalachian State University

Teaching Interests

Current teaching interests include social and emotional needs of gifted and exceptional learners, research methods and design, emotional and behavioral disorders, developing intervention plans to address emotional and behavioral disorders, foundations in gifted, creative, and innovative education, differentiation methods for gifted and creative learners, creativity and problem-solving for gifted and creative learners, topics in special education, and curriculum design for exceptional students and gifted and creative learners, and instructional technology in personalized learning environments to promote collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.

Research Interests

Current research interests include the following: assessing personalized learning environments that promote collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, evaluating curriculum design for gifted students such as Problem-based Learning (PBL) and Project-based Learning (PjBL), uncovering instructional methods and learning environments that nurture flow in the classroom such as Makerspaces, evaluating techniques that encourage growth mindset, and understanding the influence of mindfulness on the social and emotional needs of diverse populations including gifted students.