Dr. Jessica Nastal (she/they) is Assistant Professor of English, specializing in writing studies and two-year college literacy studies. She is a fourth-generation union member and a single mother. In Spain and the US (in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Illinois), at private and public universities and colleges, Jessica has taught classes in composition, developmental writing, writing studies, professional and technical writing, and English language studies. She currently facilitates the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) seminar on teaching writing in two-year colleges with Erin Lehman.
With Mya Poe and Christie Toth, Jessica's edited collection, Writing Placement in Two-Year Colleges: The Pursuit of Equity in Postsecondary Education won the CWPA Best Book Award. She received the 2021 NISOD Teaching Excellence Award and the 2013–2014 Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship for (Re)Envisioning Placement for 21st Century Writing Programs from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Jessica’s research focuses on writing pedagogy, response to student writing, and assessment. It has appeared or is forthcoming in Composition Studies, ETS Research Reports, Journal of Response to Writing, Journal of Writing Assessment, Pedagogy, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and several edited collections. She serves on the editorial boards for Assessing Writing, Composition Studies, Journal of Writing Analytics, Journal of Writing Assessment, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College. Her students’ work has been published in Queen City Writers and Composition Studies.
At her previous institutions, Jessica chaired or co-chaired assessment, equity and inclusion, reaccreditation, and strategic planning efforts, as well as an English Department. She has contributed to revising writing, programmatic, and general education assessment methods on campus and writing placement efforts statewide. Jessica serves on the curriculum committee for her child's grade school district, as co-leader for the Girl Scouts troop, and as liaison for the school’s book trivia competition.