Kathy Shelton2021 State Supervisor of the Year
At its 62nd annual meeting held virtually in November 2021, the National Council of State Supervisor for Languages (NCSSFL) named Kathleen Shelton the 2021 State Supervisor of the Year. Kathy has devoted her entire professional life to K-12 world language education. Kathy first became a language fanatic as a young girl, after hearing her Italian grandmother urge her to “Mangia! Mangia!” while piling mountains of homemade gnocchi onto her dinner plate. This early excitement for new languages never wavered, eventually propelling Kathy to teach high school French for 22 years, as well as English as a Second Language courses as a college instructor. Kathy continues to serve students and teachers through her current position as an Education Program Specialist for K-12 World Languages and Cultures at the Ohio Department of Education.
An accomplished and passionate educator who believes that language learning opportunities must be equitable and accessible for all students, Kathy uses her experience and expertise to advance the professional skills of language teachers around the country. She has delivered hundreds of workshops at the state, regional and national level on topics such as standards implementation, assessment, proficiency, literacy, inclusive teaching practices and Universal Design for Learning. She also has led workshops on intercultural communication and competence at the annual conferences for ACTFL, Central States and the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages and has served as the keynote speaker and featured presenter at language conferences throughout the Midwest.
Through her state-level position, Kathy oversees the development of the Ohio World Language Model Curriculum, a dynamic repository of world language resources used by teachers around the world. Kathy served as the co-chair of the 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL national task force for the Language Can-Do Statements and on the committee for the Intercultural Can-Do Statements. She holds leadership positions with the Ohio Foreign Language Association and the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages and has contributed articles to state language publications, CASLS InterCom journal, The ACTFL Language Educator and an upcoming book on disrupted learning during the pandemic.
A lifelong Ohio resident, Kathy earned a B.A. in French from the University of Toledo and an M.A. in French Language and Literature from The Ohio State University. She resides with her family and numerous pets in Westerville, Ohio. When she isn’t advocating for language learning for all, she can be found cheering on The Ohio State Buckeyes football team or chasing new bird species around the country to add to her life list.
