Faculty & Staff Profiles

Dr. Kelly M. Costner, a first generation college student, has been an educator since 1990. His postsecondary teaching has included courses in: strategies for teaching English Learners, linguistics, grammar for the English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, mathematics methods (elementary, middle, and high), research methods, middle level assessment and pedagogy, foundations, and general teaching methods. Dr. Costner has supervised teacher candidates in every grade level and in multiple subject areas. His scholarship focuses on developing ways to help non-ESL teachers (in any subject area) better serve their English Learner (EL) population.

Dr. Costner is dedicated to the ideal of public schools. As a result, he has maintained the role of Faculty in Residence almost continuously since 2010—first at South Middle School in Lancaster, SC, and now at Sugar Creek Elementary School in Fort Mill, SC. The Faculty in Residence position allows him to work alongside classroom teachers and teacher candidates on site at the school one to two days each week, which firmly grounds his work as a teacher educator.

Dr. Costner grew up as an only child in nearby Cleveland County, NC. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with majors and teacher certification in both mathematics and French, Dr. Costner taught both subjects at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, NC. He then pursued graduate studies in both mathematics education and French literature and culture at The Ohio State University. He returned to the Carolinas in 2000 to assume his first position as a teacher educator and arrived at Winthrop in 2006. He is married to a mathematics educator, and they live in the Rock Hill area with their two elderly cats.