Dr. Jessica Nastal (she/they) is Assistant Professor of English, specializing in writing assessment and two-year college literacy studies. She is a fourth-generation union member and a single mother. In Spain and the US (in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Illinois), at private and public universities and colleges, Jessica has taught classes in composition, developmental writing, writing studies, professional and technical writing, and English language studies. More about her story was featured by the college; you may find it here.
With Mya Poe and Christie Toth, Jessica's edited collection, Writing Placement in Two-Year Colleges: The Pursuit of Equity in Postsecondary Education won the CWPA Best Book Award. She received the 2025 TYCA–Midwest and 2021 NISOD Teaching Excellence Awards and the 2013–2014 Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship for (Re)Envisioning Placement for 21st Century Writing Programs from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Jessica’s research focuses on writing pedagogy, response to student writing, and assessment. It has appeared in ETS Research Reports, Journal of Response to Writing, Journal of Writing Assessment, Pedagogy, Teaching English in the Two-Year College and several edited collections. She serves on the editorial boards for Assessing Writing, Journal of Writing Analytics, and Journal of Writing Assessment. Her students’ work has been published in Queen City Writers and Composition Studies. Jessica is an incoming editor of Teaching English in the Two-Year College.
At her previous institutions, Jessica chaired or co-chaired assessment, equity and inclusion, reaccreditation, and strategic planning efforts. She has served as an English Department chair and Interim Dean of Learning Resources and Assessment. Jessica has contributed to revising, writing, and implementing course-level, programmatic, and general education assessment methods on campuses and writing placement efforts statewide. She serves as co-leader for her child's Scouts troop and book trivia team.