Office of Professional & Continuing Education

Garry Shriver has taught five AP subjects and two International Baccalaureate subjects, including IB Psychology, during his 32 years as a public-school teacher in the Memphis, TN area. Over his career Mr. Shriver has taught AP Psychology for 22 years, served the College Board as a reader and table leader for the AP Psychology exam for 12 years, participated as a multiple-choice question writer for the AP Psychology exam and was a member of the national development committee creating the national Psychology Praxis exam for the Educational Testing Service. Most recently, Mr. Shriver has served on the Free Response Rubric Development Committee for the national exam.

While working for Shelby County Schools, Mr. Shriver was a district workshop leader and psychology curriculum writer. He was the social studies department chair and Advanced Placement department chair at Bolton High School for 30 years. He has been a three-time National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship recipient and has served on numerous Superintendents' Advisory committees including the Tennessee Governor's Round Table for Education.

After 34 years in public education, Mr. Shriver now teaches at St. Agnes Academy in Memphis, TN. In his spare time he hosts the How To Love Lit literature podcast with his wife, Christy, an AP English Language teacher and APSI.

Bruce L. Damasio currently teaching Economics at Howard Community College, has been a reader and was one of the original readers for AP Economics exams from 1989 to 2009. He is on the staff of the Maryland Council for Economics Education as the staff member responsible for teacher training and AP coordination for Maryland. He is the past president of GATE (Global Association of Teachers of Economics), associated with the Council for Economic Education, serving as president from 2005 to 2009 and also served as a consultant for AP publications from CEE during that time.

He was a two time board member, from 2002 to 2010 for the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) based in Washington DC. In 2002, he was the National Teacher of the Year in the United States for Social Studies.

He has conducted numerous one day workshops for College Board across the United States as well as summer week-long APSI trainings at sites across America, including: University of Alabama, New Mexico State, New Mexico Highlands University, Goucher College, University of San Diego, LaSalle University, Fordham University, Molloy College, Oakland University and UTEP as well as numerous state and local schools across the country including FCPS from 2010 to 2021.

He has been to China 11 previous times for AP trainings as well as trips to Taiwan, South Korea, Pakistan and the UAE for College Board workshops. Bruce also taught 6 years of middle school and 27 years of high school social studies and economics in Maryland.

From 2004 to 2018, Bruce was a integral part of the Towson University MAT program for developing future teachers and taught social studies methods on campus. In 2015, he was a fellow attending the Imperial War Museum/ American Air Museum in Britain summer institute at London, Cambridge and RAF Duxford. He conducted and presented research on the 8th Air Force and attended briefings and visited sites. He is a certified consultant for The College Board since 2002 for AP Macro and AP Micro training for teachers.

I am very excited to meet and work with all of you this summer at the APSI. I started teaching AP Government in 2004 in the Cleveland area and was invited to be an AP Reader in 2007 in Daytona, Florida. I have been scoring Free Response Questions as a Table Leader and Questions Leader since 2004. Besides 1-2 day online and 4-day APSI’s, I know that scoring is one of the BEST Professional Development opportunities I have experienced and it has made me a better AP Government teacher. This will be my 4th year teaching a summer institute, my 20th year teaching AP Government and Politics and I will finish my 30th year teaching in June. In June of 2023 I took the weeklong Project Based Learning class for AP Government and I have incorporated some of those projects into my AP Government classes.

In May, I will finish my 18 hours of additional graduate level Political Science classes at Ashland University in the Master of Arts in History and Government program, which allows me to teach college credit plus Government classes in Ohio next school year. Besides AP Government, I also teach on level government and serve as the Berea-Midpark high school Social Studies Department Chairperson. I have been elected to 6 straight terms as Ward 2 City Councilman in my hometown of Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Davis Thompson has been teaching AP English Literature and Composition at Auburn High School in Auburn, Alabama for the past twenty-six years, and he has loved every minute of it. His greatest passion is teaching students both how to analyze and how to enjoy poetry. Davis has been the coach and sponsor for Poetry Out Loud (a national poetry recitation contest) at his school for the past thirteen years and has helped his students win the Alabama State Championship five times, 3rd place in the nation one time, and the National Poetry Out Loud Championship itself in 2011. Davis also has had experience through NEH Institutes studying Shakespeare both as an actor and teacher as well as dabbling in some philosophy. In addition to AP English Literature, he has taught IB English Literature, IB Theory of Knowledge, and Creative Writing. Davis holds a B.A. in English from Furman University (1996) and a M.A. in English Education from Auburn University (1997). He works as a College Board Consultant and AP Reader for AP English Literature. When asked by students, “Why do we have to read this?” Davis has a simple one word answer (that is also his life philosophy): “Joy.”

Beth Hall earned her MFA in Creative Writing in 2014 and soon began her career as a high school English teacher in Beebe, Arkansas. She quickly developed a passion for teaching nonfiction and helping students hone their writing skills. Over the years, Hall has taught honors, AP, and concurrent credit English classes and also served as a high school soccer coach for seven years. In 2024, she was honored as the Beebe High School Teacher of the Year.

Outside the classroom, in 2019, Hall launched a YouTube channel, Coach Hall Writes. Hall’s videos quickly gained notoriety among AP Language and Composition teachers and students because of the videos’ conciseness and clarity. In 2020, the Coach Hall Writes YouTube Channel was listed as one of the top resources AP Lang teachers felt was most helpful in preparing their students for the AP Language and Composition exam. After serving as an AP Lang reader for multiple years, Hall became a College Board consultant in 2023. In 2024, Hall co-authored the AMSCO Writing for the AP Exam: English Language and Composition textbook.

Daniel Cooper has worked in education for around two decades. He has taught students with diverse backgrounds in both public and private schools across the United States and abroad. Specifically, he has taught AP World History for over a decade. During his years serving as an AP Reader, Mr. Cooper has scored thousands of student responses. As an Early Table Leader, he helped guide the sample selection process. Additionally, Mr. Cooper has an array of experience leading professional development and writing curriculum. Mr. Cooper finds that increasing student engagement and improving writing skills are two of his specialties.

Jim Day is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Montevallo. He holds a B.S. in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, an M.A. in history from the University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. in history from Auburn University. His monograph—Diamonds in the Rough: A History of Alabama’s Cahaba Coal Field—combines technological and social history to examine the industrial development of central Alabama. The book won the Alabama Historical Association’s 2014 Clinton Jackson Coley Award for the best work on local history, and Jim was named UM’s University Scholar for Academic Year 2014-2015. He also served as the inaugural Michael J. Grainger Professor in Modern History, 2018-2022.

Since retiring from the Army in 1995, Jim has taught history at Marion Military Institute, Judson College, Auburn University Montgomery, and the University of Montevallo. At UM, he teaches courses in Colonial America, Revolutionary America, Jeffersonian and Jacksonian America, the Gilded Age, U.S. History since 1945, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the History of Alabama’s Constitutions. He also has developed Staff Ride/Terrain Walk courses on the Civil War battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Franklin.

Susan Altman is a Professor and Assistant Chairperson in the Visual, Performing and Media Arts Department at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. She has over 35 years of experience in teaching studio foundations at the college level including Drawing, 2-Dimensional and 3-Dimensional Design. In addition to teaching college courses, for 30 years she has taught middle school students and gifted and talented high school students for college credit as part of the Middlesex County Arts and Ed Center. Her research in the pedagogy of teaching studio art and her passion for teaching is enthusiastically shared with her AP® colleagues to bring successful strategies to their studio classrooms. She loves working with you; sharing new ideas, making art, and learning together to help your students succeed in the AP® Art and Design course.

As a College Board endorsed consultant to the AP® in Art and Design, she is a reader for the AP® Art and Design Exam, a Table Leader, and is actively teaching professional development workshops to both new and experienced AP® teachers. As a founding member, and current Director of the Center for the Enrichment of Learning and Teaching at Middlesex, she is active in professional development across disciplines. Her pedagogical research has been presented at national and international conferences including the College Art Association, FATE - Foundations in Art Theory and Education and The Lilly Conference for Brain Based Teaching and Learning.

Susan Altman received her BFA in Printmaking from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and her MFA in Printmaking from the Tyler School of Art. She has an active studio practice in drawing and printmaking, which has been shown nationally and internationally. Her work can be found in numerous public and private collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Library of Congress.

Joseph Kelly is a graduate of Valdosta State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics, Joseph Kelly earned a Master of Science degree in Mathematics Education from Florida State University, a Specialist of Education degree in teacher leadership from Georgia Southwestern State University, and a Doctor of Education degree in Secondary Mathematics from Kennesaw State University. Joseph not only teaches AP Precalculus and AP Calculus but is also a Mathematics and Statistics adjunct for Tallahassee State College. He is also an AP Workshop Consultant for AP Calculus AB/BC and an AP Reader for AP Precalculus. He enjoys everything Disney, traveling, and spending time with his wife, Natalie, and three daughters, Caroline, Savannah, and Dorothy. His research interests include mathematical identity, the influence of tracking, and mathematics education in rural communities.

Carol Yarbrough began teaching high school in 2007, embarking on a second career after working in the computer industry for 20+ years. She taught computer science full-time at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, in Birmingham, Alabama, for 12 years before joining A+ College Ready full-time in 2018.

Carol graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Computational Mathematics. She then was employed in just about every aspect of the computer industry, doing both scientific and business programming. In addition to being a programmer, she has been a designer, analyst, system administrator, database administrator, technical architect, corporate trainer and curriculum developer. But, she always wanted to teach, so she studied Secondary Mathematics Education in the 5th year program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was a pilot teacher for the College Board's AP Computer Science Principles course and is served as the College Board Advisor on the course’s Development Committee. Carol served as a reader for the APCSA exam for several years before becoming a table leader for the AP CS Principles exam reading. She is also a College Board consultant, responsible for facilitating professional development for AP teachers through workshops and AP Summer Institutes.

Carol enjoys working with bright and creative people and the satisfaction of knowing that her work matters.

Todd Steckler lives in McAllen, TX with his wife Mayra. We have two children, Angela is a senior at the University of Texas in Austin, and Jacob is a senior in high school.

He grew up in North Dakota and graduated high school in 1984 from Mandan High School, in Mandan, North Dakota. He studied Mathematics at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota and graduated with a B.S. in 1988.

After college graduation, he moved to Texas and accepted my first teaching job with the La Joya Independent School District where he is in his 38th year of teaching mathematics. His first 30 years were at La Joya High School and the past 7 years have been at the Academy of Health Science Professions. He has taught AP Calculus AB each year since 1995, AP Calculus BC most of those years (when there is sufficient enrollment), AP Statistics each year since 2006, and Precalculus each year since 1992. He has taught the first two years of AP Precalculus the past two years (2024 and 2025).

He continued his university studies at the University of Texas – Pan American, in Edinburg, from 1997-2000, where I earned a Master of Mathematical Sciences in 2000. Since 2001 he has been employed part-time as a dual enrollment and adjunct faculty member (mathematics) for South Texas College, in McAllen, TX.

He has been an AP Calculus Reader for College Board, since 2012, but transitioned to AP Precalculus this year. He will be an Early Table Leader again at the AP Reading in Kansas City. The past two summers he has led 12 APSIs for Precalculus. He have written numerous AP Multiple Choice items for the AP Calculus exam and have also done some mentoring of fellow teachers in AP Calculus.

He is a T³ Regional Instructor for Texas Instruments and enjoy leading in-service trainings to fellow educators about TI graphing calculators, especially TI NSPIRE. I do some item writing for different companies for math assessments, I do some tutoring for Tutor.Com, and I do some consultant work for Hudson Global Scholars.

When I have some spare time, I enjoy following the Green Bay Packers. I am a proud owner of one piece of stock of this publicly-owned franchise. I enjoy working puzzles, preparing fajitas on the barbecue grill, and spending time with family.

Chris Olson is a past member (twice) of the AP Statistics Test Development Committee and a few years ago joined the 16-year club of serving as a table leader and question leader for the AP Statistics exam. After teaching statistics at George Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, IA, for over 25 years, and AP Statistics from its inception until 2012, he passed the baton. For the past 10 years he enjoyed the role of assistant professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Grinnell College, teaching calculus, experimental design, and applied statistics classes; he is recently (July 1, 2023!) retired and catching up on reading. He was a math and philosophy major in his undergraduate years at Iowa State Univerisity; in his graduate work at the University of Iowa he concentrated on statistics, computer programming, psychometrics, and test development.

He has been involved nationally and internationally in workshops and conferences mostly relating to statistics for over 35 years. He has reviewed materials for The Mathematics teacher, the AP Central web site, The American Statistician, and the Journal of the American Statistical Association, and is on the editorial board of the Teaching Statistics journal. He is a co-author, with Roxy Peck and Tom Short, of the Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis, now in its 6th edition, and Statistics: Learning from Data, now in its 2nd (updated) edition – and is working on a 3rd edition. (No rest for the weary…)

Current projects involve moderating the College Board’s AP Statistics Teacher Community and maintaining a freeware computer program, SPLAT (“Statistical Package for Learning And Teaching”) designed to support the teaching of AP Statistics.