Rachelle Kuehl

Brief Bio

Rachelle Kuehl is a Research Scientist with the Center for Rural Education and the School of Education at Virginia Tech and the project manager of the Appalachian Rural Talent Initiative.

ORCID Link: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3335-9808
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PF_x6t0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Extended Bio

Dr. Kuehl graduated from Virginia Tech with a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction (Literacy) and an Ed.S. as a Reading Specialist in 2020. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Educational Leadership from Radford University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from St. Olaf College in Minnesota. 

Dr. Kuehl was recently named a 2022 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellow. The fellowship will fund a contextualized qualitative research study entitled “Enacting an Antiracist Critical Literacy Pedagogy in Rural Places: How Appalachian Teachers Engage Students in the Interrogation of Whiteness.”

A former elementary teacher, Dr. Kuehl’s articles about rural gifted education, children’s literature, literacy instruction, and teacher education have appeared in publications such as The Reading Teacher, Journal of Children’s Literature, English Journal, Theory & Practice in Rural Education, Reading Horizons, English in Education, and the Journal of Literacy Innovation. She is the author or co-author of five book chapters, has written and revised place-based curricula for gifted rural students, and has conducted multiple professional development workshops for practicing teachers.

Dr. Kuehl has taught courses in reading instruction and elementary education at Virginia Tech and has been a National Writing Project Teacher Consultant since 2004. She belongs to professional organizations such as the American Educational Research Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Rural Education Association and she is the current Chair of the Intermediate Book Awards Committee for the International Literacy Association.