Pat Wiese holds a BA in Teaching from Sam Houston State University, a MA in Education from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. After a long career in business, she returned to academia, teaching English at the community college level while completing her doctoral studies and then beginning her second career at Texas A&M University (TAMU), from which she retired as an Associate Clinical Professor. During her years at TAMU, Pat taught writing-intensive courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level in Children’s Literature, Multicultural Children’s Literature, Young Adult Literature, and Teaching Writing. In addition to serving as the TAMU College of Education (CEHD) representative on the university-wide Writing Intensive (W) Course Committee, she served as the founding faculty advisor to her department’s Undergraduate Peer Mentor (UPM) Program, supervising and assisting the doctoral student coordinator in the selection and supervision of 14-16 UPMs as they assisted their peers with the department’s 18 sections of W Courses. Shortly before her retirement from TAMU, the UPMs and Reading Faculty of the TAMU Teaching, Learning and Culture (TLAC) Department established and dedicated the TLAC “Dr. Patricia Wiese Educational Library and Mentoring Center.”

In addition to her love for teaching and conferencing with her students on campus, Pat was active in developing and leading study abroad programs and international partnerships throughout Europe, especially the multiple-year program she and her ESL/EFL (English as a Second/Foreign Language) professor colleague established in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy, where their university students taught English in the local Italian Middle School. In 2007, Pat was one of three university-wide recipients of the TAMU International Excellence Award in recognition of her work developing TLAC Study Abroad Programs and in working with the TAMU European Center for Excellence.

After retiring to Lexington, Pat missed her work with students, especially with their writing, and is so happy to be working with VMI Cadets in the Virginia Military Institute Writing Center. Nothing brings her more pleasure than seeing students begin to think of themselves as writers!