Kristine Anderson
Professor, English
Norco College School of Communication,
Humanities & Languages
(Retired in June 2020)
- 29 years of dedicated service
To view the English program page, click here.
2020 Norco College Faculty Commencement Speaker
Kristine Anderson
Kristine Anderson has taught college English for over thirty-five years. She was hired
at Riverside Community College in 1989 and began teaching at Norco College in 2014.
She has a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from New England College and a Master of Arts
in English from San Diego State University. She considers herself a writer-teacher
whereby each “hat” informs the other.
During her years at RCC, Professor Anderson served as English department chair and
writing center coordinator. She was instrumental in curriculum development that made
it possible for the RCC literary magazine, MUSE, to first be produced in a college course dedicated to publishing. She has always
been an advocate for local and regional arts and was involved with creating the curriculum
for an English class dedicated to authors and literature of the Inland Empire. In
addition, she taught twice as a study abroad instructor in Oxford, England. She initiated
readings series at RCC in the 1990s, which brought authors to campus, and was a founding
participant of Voices from the Americas lecture series at RCC in the 2000s, a collaboration of the college, the three universities
in the area, the local unified school district, the public library, and other organizations.
Presenters included Carlos Fuentes, Richard Rodriguez, and Maxine Hong Kingston.
In addition to being a dedicated teacher of creative writing and composition, Professor
Anderson is an accomplished writer and poet receiving multiple fellowships and publications
in The Copperfield Review, Soundings East, Southern Indiana Review, and the anthology, Active Voices IV. Most recently, Professor Anderson put her writing talents to work as the accreditation
co-chair for Norco College and the lead editor for the college accreditation report.
Her dedication to the institution, students and co-workers was evident in every page.
Professor Jo Scott-Coe expressed it well when she said, “She has always been a colleague
who put the ‘C’ in collegial.”
Along with these many professional and personal accomplishments, when asked to describe
her accomplishments, Professor Anderson begins with “Proud wife—and colleague—of David
Mills, and proud mother of Jonathan; […] working with you [students] and helping you
learn to connect with others—and with your own ideas—through writing. Laughing together,
watching you grow, seeing you succeed!” Professor Anderson will be retiring this spring
after twenty-nine years of service to RCCD. Our college community will be the lesser,
and we can never thank her enough for her dedication, service and inspiration to all
who learned with her.
#NCGrads2020 #NC_Commencement2020