About
Hannah O'Connor has chaired the AB Education department since 2019 and has directed the AB Master of Education (M.Ed.) program since its expansion in 2021. Under her leadership the Education program has achieved a 100% Praxis II first-attempt pass rate for the past four years and has placed 96% of its WV Initial-Certified graduates in WV public schools within twelve months of certification.
O'Connor was born and raised in Marshall County, WV (her mother taught second grade there for 33 years). She holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from West Virginia University (2014), an M.Ed. in Reading Specialist from Marshall University (2007), and a B.A. in Elementary Education from Bethany College (WV, 2003).
Before academia she spent fifteen years in K-8 public education: four years as a third-grade and reading-specialist teacher in Marshall County, and eleven years as a principal in three Appalachian school districts (Marshall County, Tucker County, and Barbour County). At AB she teaches across the Education curriculum and directs both the undergraduate teacher-certification track and the M.Ed. program.
Education
- 2014Ed.D., Educational Leadership — West Virginia University. Dissertation: The Rural Elementary Principal: A Mixed-Methods Study of Roles, Practices, and Persistence.
- 2007M.Ed., Reading Specialist — Marshall University.
- 2003B.A., Elementary Education (cum laude) — Bethany College (WV).
Teaching
Dr. O'Connor teaches the foundational and capstone courses for the WV-certified elementary education track and the M.Ed. capstone.
- EDU 215Foundations of EducationA required sophomore-year survey of the philosophical, historical, sociological, and legal foundations of American public education.
- EDU 405Capstone Student Teaching PracticumThe semester-long student-teaching practicum (15 weeks, 1 full-time placement). Required for WV Initial Certification.
- EDU 580M.Ed. Capstone in Educational LeadershipThe final-semester M.Ed. capstone, in which each candidate completes a publishable-quality school-improvement research project.
Research, Practice & State Policy
O'Connor's scholarship focuses on the rural elementary principalship — the daily practices, professional development needs, and retention patterns of K-8 principals in rural and Appalachian school districts. She has authored two book chapters and seven peer-reviewed articles on rural school leadership, and is a frequent expert source for the WV Department of Education and the WV Senate Education Committee.
She serves on the WV Board of Education Teacher Preparation Advisory Committee, the WV Reading Initiative Advisory Board, and is a Past President of the WV Council of Professors of Educational Administration.
Selected Publications & Presentations
- 2024"Why Rural Principals Stay." Journal of Research in Rural Education.
- 2023Book chapter, "The Rural Reading Specialist," in Reading Instruction in Appalachian Schools (Routledge).
- 2022"The Inclusive Rural Classroom." The Reading Teacher.
- 2024Invited testimony, WV Senate Education Committee, "The Rural Teacher Pipeline."
Honors & Service
- 2024100% Praxis II Pass Rate for AB Education Graduates (4th consecutive year).
- 2023WV Department of Education Distinguished Educator Award.
- 2021WV Council of Professors of Educational Administration Past President.
- 2016WV Reading Initiative Lead Author.
- 2014WVU College of Education Distinguished Dissertation.
You cannot teach a 19-year-old to be a great rural-elementary teacher in a lecture hall. You teach them to be a great rural-elementary teacher by sending them, every Tuesday and Thursday, for an entire semester, into an actual rural-elementary classroom — and then helping them think clearly about what just happened to them.— Dr. Hannah O'Connor
Beyond the Classroom
O'Connor lives in Philippi with her husband Patrick (a high-school AP US History teacher at Philip Barbour High School) and their three children (all in Barbour County Schools). She is a Sunday-school teacher at Calvary Baptist Church and the volunteer coordinator for the Barbour County Reads program — a literacy-tutoring partnership between AB Education students and Philippi Elementary.
She is a passionate vegetable gardener (her 2024 cucumber crop overran her family's kitchen), a competitive WV State Spelling Bee judge, and the AB Faculty Senate Recording Secretary.