Ms. Hanson teaches in the English department and the education department and has been at Augustana since 1989. For the English department, Hanson teaches writing and literature courses. For the education department, she teaches secondary language arts methods and literacy courses and also supervises student teachers in area schools. Hanson’s master’s degree thesis was an investigation into the pedagogy of teaching research papers in first-year college courses. In one of her favorite courses, LS100: College Composition, she explores ways to inspire intellectual curiosity and teach students how to ask and answer good questions in writing. She reads composition theory and as many young adolescent novels as possible, in order to keep her courses current.

Hanson is a first-year advisor and serves on the First-year Summer Reading committee and the First-Year Experience committee. She also advises English/education majors. She leads writing workshops in the Quad City community and volunteers on many committees in the Davenport Community School District. She coordinates the ALPHA program at her church and also co-leads a monthly book discussion group there with her husband, Dave Crowe, the current chair of the Augustana English department.