Title: Associate Professor
Company: The University of West Florida
Location: Gulf Breeze, Florida, University
Susan Densmore-James, PhD, Associate Professor at The University of West Florida, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in language arts and reading education.
As an accomplished educator with more than 30 years of professional experience, Dr. Densmore-James has found success since 2018 with the University of West Florida. She serves as an associate professor of language arts and reading education in the College of Education and Professional Studies’ Department of Teacher Education and Educational Leadership. Alongside this position, she has excelled as a supervising professor of student teaching and English education at Florida State University since 2011.
Dr. Densmore-James began her career as a substitute teacher and eventually became a full teacher of English, journalism and health for seventh grade students at Gulf Breeze High School from 1990 to 1992. She served as a crisis intervention counselor and administrator of the at-risk program at Seminole Middle School with Broward County Public Schools from 1993 to 1995. Dr. Densmore-James garnered extensive teaching experience with Fairfax County Public Schools and later served as a reading specialist with Gulf Breeze High School from 2006 to 2008. She accepted her current role as a supervising professor after conducting graduate research and working as a teaching assistant at Florida State University from 2009 to 2011.
In preparation for her career, Dr. Densmore-James attended Pensacola State College and earned an Associate of Arts in teacher education in 1987. In 1990, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies education with a minor in English from San Diego State University and completed a student teaching internship at Beaumont Elementary School. Dr. Densmore-James continued her pursuit of higher education at The University of West Florida, graduating in 2007 with a Master of Arts in reading education. In 2011, she earned a Doctor of Philosophy in reading education and language arts from Florida State University. Alongside her formal degrees, she holds a K-12 Reading and Social Sciences Certification and is a certified Middle School Crisis Intervention Counselor.
Dr. Densmore-James has found success through her creative work, authoring “Curating a Connecting Writing Community During a Time of COVID” in the journal Writing and Pedagogy in 2023. She has contributed her expertise as a reviewer for the Florida English Journal since 2015 and a guest reviewer for the Journal of Research on Christian Education since 2014. Dr. Densmore-James also became a reviewer for SIGNAL Journal in 2013.
For her accomplishments, Dr. Densmore-James has been a FlaIR Faculty Fellow with the State Reading Fellowship since 2014. From 2020 to 2021, she received a Distinguished University Faculty Service Award from the University of West Florida, and in 2020, she earned a Teaching Award from CEPS. In 2018, Dr. Densmore-James was the recipient of a Service Award from the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of West Florida. In the coming years, she plans to continue her work in public schools and as an advocate for research-based practices in education.
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